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Presidential Addresses and State Papers 



PRESIDENTIAL 

ADDRESSES AND 

STATE PAPERS 

OF 
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 

From March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1910 




Volume One 



NEW YORK 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1910 






UL(* 



C^j-vvi 



v 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



COPYRIGHT, IQIO, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, IQIO 



©CI. A 27-" 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

1. Speech of Acceptance ..... 3 

(Cincinnati, Ohio, July 28, 1908.) 

2. The Republican Party's Appeal ... 43 

(Published in The Independent, October 15, 1908.) 

3. Inaugural Address ..... 53 

(March 4, 1909.) 

4. Message Convening Congress in Extra Session . 69 

(March 16, 1909.) 

5. Grover Cleveland Memorial . . . . 71 

(Carnegie Hall, New York City, March 18, 1909.) 

6. Message to Congress on proposed Tariff Revision 

Law of 1909 for the Philippine Islands . . 78 

(April 14, 1900.) 

7. Government of the District of Columbia . 80 

(Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce Banquet, 
Washington, D. C, May 8, 1909.) 

8. Message to Congress Concerning Affairs in 

Porto Rico 88 

(May 10, 1909.) 

9. Unveiling of the Pennsylvania Memorial, at 

Petersburg, Virginia ..... 97 

(May 19, 1909.) 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

10. Mecklenburg Declaration . . . .101 

(Charlotte, N. C, May 20, 1909.) 

11. The Negro and the South . . . .111 

(Howard University, Washington, D. C, May 26, 1909.) 

12. Rodelph Shalom Temple . . .117 

(Pittsburg, Pa., May 29, 1909.) 

13. The Regular Army of the United States . .119 

(Gettysburg, Pa., May 31, 1909.) 

-14. An Answer to Panama Canal Critics . . 124 

(Published in McClure's Magazine, May, 1909.) 

15. Judicial Decisions as an Issue in Politics . 142 

(Published in McClure's Magazine, June, 1909.) 

16. Message to Congress Concerning the Govern- 

ment of Cuba ...... 164 

(June 5, 1909.) 

17. Message to Congress Concerning Tax on Net 

Income of Corporations . . . .166 

(June 16, 1909.) 

18. Unveiling of Memorial to Dr. Benjamin F. Ste- 

phenson, Founder of the Grand Army of the 
Republic ....... 170 

(Washington, D. C, July 3, 1909.) 

19. Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the 

Founding of Norwich, Conn. . . . 173 

(July 5, 1909.) 



CONTENTS vii 

PAGE 

20. Catholic Summer School of America . . 178 

(Cliff Haven, N. Y., July 7, 1909.) 

21. Boston Chamber of Commerce . . . 182 

(September 14, 1909.) 

22. Labor and the Writ of Injunction . 191 
(Orchestra Hall, Chicago, September 16, 1909). 

23. Postal Savings Banks . . . . .201 

(Milwaukee, Wis., September 17, 1909.) 

24. The Tariff 209 

(Winona, Minn., September 17, 1909.) 

25. Amendment of Interstate Commerce Law . 231 

(Des Moines, Iowa, September 20, 1909.) 

26. Corporation and Income Taxes . . . 2-15 

(Auditorium, Denver. Col., September 21, 1909.) 

27. A Soft Answer Turneth Away Wrath, but Griev- 

ous Words Stir Up Anger .... 258 
(Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, September 26, 1909.) 

28. Young Men's Christian Association . . 268 

(Salt Lake City, September 26, 1909.) 

29. Conservation of National Resources . . 270 

(Spokane, Washington, September 28, 1909.) 

30. Alaska 281 

(Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 
September 29, 1909.) 



viii CONTENTS 

31. Alaska, Merchant Marine and Subsidy . 

(The Armory, Taconia, Washington, October 1, 1909.) 

32. The Tariff, Income and Corporation Taxes 

(The Armory, Portland, Ore., October 2, 1909.) 

33. St. Mary's Academy 

(Portland, Ore., October 3, 1909.) 

34. Laying of Cornerstone of the Universalist Church 

(Irvington, Portland, Ore., October 3, 1909.) 

35. Subsidy, Merchant Marine and Conservation of 

National Resources ..... 

(Hotel Fairmont, San Francisco, Cal., October 5, 1909.) 

36. He Who Conquers Himself is Greater than He 

Who Taketh a City 

(Union Religious Service, City Hall Park, Fresno, Cal., 
October 10, 1909.) 

37. Panama Canal and Merchant Marine 

(Banquet of Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles, Cal., 
October 11, 1909.) 

38. Missions 

(Glenwood Mission Inn, Riverside, Cal., October 12, 1909.) 

39. Statehood ....... 

(City Hall, Phoenix, Arizona, October 13, 1909.) 

40. Statehood ....... 

(Prescott, Arizona, October 13, 1909.) 



CONTENTS ix 



41. Interview of President Taft with President Diaz 

of Mexico 360 

(Chamber of Commerce Building, El Paso,Texas, and 
Federal Custom House, Juarez, Mexico, Oct. 16, 1909.) 

42. Toast of President Diaz and Response of Pres- 

ident Taft .364 

(Banquet at Custom House, Juarez, Mexico, Oct. 16, 1909.) 

43. Dedication o Gift Chapel to U. S. Army . 366 

(Fort Sam Houston, Texas, October 17, 1909.) 



44. Conservation of National Resources and Water- 

ways ....... 

(Corpus Christi, Texas, October 22, 1909.) 

45. Conservation of National Resources and Irri- 

gation ....... 

(Banquet by Citizens of Dallas, Texas, October 23, 1909.) 



371 



379 



46. Conservation and Waterways . . . 385 

(Coliseum, St. Louis, October 25, 1909.) 

47. Waterways Convention ..... 390 

(Athenaeum, New Orleans, La., October 30, 1909.) 

48. Woman's Education 396 

(State Institute and College, Columbus, Miss., November 
2, 1909.) 

49. The Development of the South , . . 399 

(Banquet of Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham, Ala.. 
November 2, 1909.) 

50. Wisdom and Necessity of Following the Law . 403 

(State Fair Grounds, Macon, Ga., November 4, 1909.) 



CONTENTS 



51. Trip of the President and Hospitality of the 

South ....... 

(Banquet tendered by the Citizens of Charleston, S. C, 
November 5, 1909.) 

52. South Carolina and Her Traditions 

(Luncheon tendered by South Carolinians in the House of 
Representatives of the State Capitol, Columbia, S. C, 
November 6, 1909.) 

53. Sanitation and Health of the South 

(Georgia-Carolina Fair, Augusta, Ga., November 8, 1909.) 

54. A Review of Legislation to be Enacted by Con- 

gress ....... 

(Auditorium, Richmond, Va., November 10, 1909.) 

55. Laymen's Missionary Movement . 

(Continental Memorial Hall, Washington, D. C, Novem- 
ber 11, 1909.) 

56. Golden Jubilee Dedication of St. Aloysius 

Church ....... 

(Washington, D. C, November 14, 1909.) 

57. Waterways ....... 

(Norfolk, Va., on the occasion of the Convention of the 
Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, November 
19, 1909.) 

58. Industrial Education of the Negro . 

(Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va., November 20, 1909.) 

59. Message to Congress at Opening of Second 

Session of the Sixty-first Congress 
(December 7, 1909.) 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

60. Sixth Annual Convention of the National Rivers 

and Harbors Congress .... 490 
(New Willard Hotel, Washington, December 8, 1909.) 

61. Ohio Valley Improvement Association . . 4-98 

(White House, Washington, December 9, 1909.) 

62. Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterways Association 501 

(White House, Washington, December 9, 1909.) 

63. Diamond Jubilee of Methodist Episcopal Mis- 

sions in Africa ...... 503 

(Carnegie Hall, New York, December 13, 1909.) 

64. New Bowery Mission . . • • .510 

(New York City, December 13, 1909.) 

65. Message to Congress on Interstate Commerce 

and Anti-Trust Law and Federal Incorporation 513 
(January 7, 1910.) 

66. Message to Congress on Conservation of National 

Resources ....... 537 

(January 14, 1910.) 

67. Uniformity of State Legislation . . . 549 

(National Civic Federation, at Belasco Theatre, Wash- 
ington, January 17, 1910.) 

68. Uniformity of State Legislation . . . 555 

(Conference of Governors at White House, Washington, 
January 18, 1910.) 

69. The Philippine Islands 559 

(Banquet of the Washington Corral of the Military Order 
of the Carabao, New Willard Hotel, Washington, Jan- 
uary 22, 1910.) 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

70. The Republican Party's Promises . . . 568 

(Lincoln Birthday Banquet of the Republican Club of 
the City of New York, February 12, 1910.) 

71. Government Expenses and Economies . . 587 

(Banquet of Board of Trade, Newark. N. J., February 
"23, 1910.) 



Index .... 599 



Presidential Addresses and State Papers 



Presidential Addresses 
and State Papers 

i 

SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE 

(DELIVERED AT CINCINNATI, OHIO, 
ON TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1908) 

Senator Warner and Gentlemen of tlie Committee: 

I AM deeply sensible of the honor which the Repub- 
lican National Convention has conferred on me in 
the nomination which you formally tender. I accept it 
with full appreciation of the responsibility it imposes. 

REPUBLICAN STRENGTH IN MAINTENANCE OF ROOSEVELT 

POLICIES 

Gentlemen, the strength of the Republican cause in the 
campaign at hand is in the fact that we represent the poli- 
cies essential to the reform of known abuses, to the con- 
tinuance of liberty and true prosperity, and that we are 
determined, as our platform unequivocally declares, to 
maintain them and carry them on. For more than ten 
years this country passed through an epoch of material 
development far beyond any that ever occurred in the 
world before. In its course, certain evils crept in. Some 
prominent and influential members of the community, 
spurred by financial success and in their hurry for greater 
wealth, became unmindful of the common rules of business 



4 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

honesty and fidelity and of the limitations imposed by law 
upon their action. This became known. The revelations 
of the breaches of trust, the disclosures as to rebates and dis- 
criminations by railways, the accumulating evidence of the 
violation of the anti-trust law by a number of corporations, 
the overissue of stocks and bonds on interstate railways for 
the unlawful enriching of directors and for the purpose of 
concentrating control of railways in one management, all 
quickened the conscience of the people, and brought on a 
moral awakening among them that boded well for the future 
of the country. 

The man who formulated the expression of the popular 
conscience and who led the movement for practical reform 
was Theodore Roosevelt. He laid down the doctrine that 
the rich violator of the law should be as amenable to 
restraint and punishment as the offender without wealth 
and without influence, and he proceeded by recommending 
legislation and directing executive action to make that prin- 
ciple good in actual performance. He secured the passage 
of the so-called rate bill, designed more effectively to 
restrain excessive and fix reasonable rates, and to punish 
secret rebates and discriminations which had been general 
in the practice of the railroads, [and which had done much 
to enable unlawful trusts to drive out of the business their 
competitors. It secured much closer supervision of rail- 
way transactions and brought within the operation of the 
same statute express companies, sleeping car companies, 
fast freight and refrigerator lines, terminal railroads and 
pipe lines, and in order to avoid undue discrimination, for- 
bade in future the combination of the transportation and 
shipping business under one control. 

President Roosevelt directed suits to be brought and 
prosecutions to be instituted under the anti-trust law, 
to enforce its provisions against the most powerful of the 
industrial corporations. He pressed to passage the pure 
food law and the meat inspection law in the interest of the 
health of the public, clean business methods and great ulti- 



AND STATE TAPERS 5 

mate benefit to the trades themselves. He recommended 
the passage of a law, which the Republican Convention has 
since specifically approved, restricting the future issue of 
stocks and bonds by interstate railways to such as may be 
authorized by Federal authority. He demonstrated to the 
people by what he said, by what he recommended to Con- 
gress, and by what he did, the sincerity of his efforts to com- 
mand respect for the law, to secure equality of all before the 
law, and to save the country from dangers of a plutocratic 
government, toward which we were fast tending. In this 
work Mr. Roosevelt has had the support and sympathy 
of the Republican party, and its chief hope of success in 
the present controversy must rest on the confidence which 
the people of the country have in the sincerity of the party's 
declaration in its platform, that it intends to continue his 
policies. 

NECESSARY TO DEVISE SOME MEANS OF PERMANENTLY 
SECURING PROGRESS MADE 

Mr. Roosevelt has set high the standard of business 
morality and obedience to law. The railroad rate bill was 
more useful possibly in the immediate moral effect of its 
passage than even in the legal effect of its very useful pro- 
visions. From its enactment dates the voluntary abandon- 
ment of the practice of rebates and discriminations by the 
railroads and the return by their managers to obedience 
to law in the fixing of tariffs. The pure food and meat 
inspection laws and the prosecutions directed by the Presi- 
dent under the anti-trust law have had a similar moral effect 
in the general business community and have made it now 
the common practice for the great industrial corporations 
to consult the law with a view to keeping within its pro- 
visions. It has also had the effect of protecting and encour- 
aging smaller competitive companies so that they have been 
enabled lo do a profitable business. 

But we should be blind to the ordinarv working of human 
nature if we did not recognize that the moral standards 



6 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

set by President Roosevelt will not continue to be observed 
by those whom cupidity and a desire for financial power 
may tempt, unless the requisite machinery is introduced 
into the law which shall in its practical operation maintain 
these standards and secure the country against a departure 
from them. 

CHIEF FUNCTION OF NEXT ADMINISTRATION TO CLINCH WHAT 
HAS BEEN DONE 

The chief function of the next Administration, in my 
judgment, is distinct from, and a progressive development 
of, that which has been performed by President Roosevelt. 
The chief function of the next Administration is to 
complete and perfect the machinery by which these 
standards may be maintained, by which the lawbreak- 
ers may be promptly restrained and punished, but 
which shall operate with sufficient accuracy and dis- 
patch to interfere with legitimate business as little as 
possible. Such machinery is not now adequate. Under 
the present rate bill, and under all its amendments, 
the burden of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 
supervising and regulating the operation of the rail- 
roads of this country has grown so heavy that it is 
utterly impossible for that tribunal to hear and dispose 
of, in any reasonable time, the many complaints, queries 
and issues that are brought before it for decision. It 
ought to be relieved of its jurisdiction as an executive, 
directing body, and its functions should be limited to the 
quasi-judicial investigation of complaints made by indi- 
viduals and made by a department of the Government 
charged with the executive business of supervising the 
operation of railways. 

There should be a classification of that very small per- 
centage of industrial corporations having power and oppor- 
tunity to effect illegal restraints of trade and monopolies, 
and legislation either inducing or compelling them to 
subject themselves to registry and to proper publicity 



AND STATE PAPERS 7 

regulations and supervision of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor. 

CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF NEXT ADMINISTRATION TO ORGAN- 
IZE SUBORDINATE AND ANCILLARY MACHINERY TO 
MAINTAIN STANDARDS ON ONE HAND, AND NOT TO 
INTERFERE WITH BUSINESS ON THE OTHER 

The field covered by the industrial combinations and by 
the railroads is so very extensive that the interests of the 
public and the interests of the businesses concerned 
cannot be properly subserved except by reorganization 
of bureaus in the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
Agriculture, and Justice, and a change in the jurisdiction 
of the Interstate Commerce Commission. It does not 
assist matters to prescribe new duties for the Interstate 
Commerce Commission which it is practically impos- 
sible for it to perform, or to denounce new offenses with 
drastic punishment, unless subordinate and ancillary legis- 
lation shall be passed making possible the quick enforcement 
in the great variety of cases which are constantly arising, 
of the principles laid down by Mr. Roosevelt, and with 
respect to which only typical instances of prosecution with 
the present machinery are possible. Such legislation 
should and would greatly promote legitimate business by 
enabling those anxious to obey the Federal statutes to know 
just what are the bounds of their lawful action. The prac- 
tical constructive and difficult work, therefore, of those who 
follow Mr. Roosevelt is to devise the ways and means by 
which the high level of business integrity and obedience 
to law which he has established may be maintained and 
departures from it restrained without undue interference 
with legitimate business. 

RAILWAY TRAFFIC AGREEMENTS APPROVED BY COMMISSION 
SHOULD BE VALID 

It is agreeable to note in this regard that the Repub- 
lican platform expressly, and the Democratic platform 
impliedly, approve an amendment to the Interstate Com- 



8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

merce Law, by which interstate railroads may make use- 
ful traffic agreements if approved by the Commission. This 
has been strongly recommended by President Roosevelt 
and will make for the benefit of the business. 

PHYSICAL VALUATION OF RAILWAYS 

Some of the suggestions of the Democratic platform 
relate really to this subordinate and ancillary machinery to 
which I have referred. Take for instance the so-called 
" physical valuation of railways." It is clear that the sum 
of all rates or receipts of a railway, less proper expenses, 
should be limited to a fair profit upon the reasonable value 
of its property, and that if the sum exceeds this measure, 
it ought to be reduced. The difficulty in enforcing the 
principle is in ascertaining what is the reasonable value 
of the company's property, and in fixing what is a fair profit. 
It is clear that the physical value of a railroad and its 
plant is an element to be given weight in determining its full 
value; but as President Roosevelt in his Indianapolis speech 
and the Supreme Court have in effect pointed out, the 
value of a railroad as a going concern, including its good 
will, due to efficiency of service and many other circum- 
stances, may be much greater than the value of its tangible 
property, and it is the former that measures the invest- 
ment on which a fair profit must be allowed. Then, too, 
the question, "What is a fair profit," is one involving not only 
the rate of interest usually earned on normally safe invest- 
ments, but also a sufficient allowance to make up for the 
risk of loss both of capital and interest in the original outlay. 
These considerations will have justified the company in 
imposing charges high enough to secure a fair income on 
the enterprise as a whole. The securities at market prices 
will have passed into the hands of subsequent purchasers 
from the original investors. Such circumstances should 
properly affect the decision of the tribunal engaged in deter- 
mining whether the totality of rates charged is reasonable 
or excessive. To ignore them might so seriously and unjustly 



AND STATE PAPERS 9 

impair settled values as to destroy all hope of restoring 
confidence and forever to end the inducement for invest- 
ment in new railroad construction which, in returning 
prosperous times, is sure to be essential to our material 
progress. As Mr. Roosevelt has said in speaking of this 
very subject: 

"The effect of such valuation and supervision of securi- 
ties can not be retroactive. Existing securities should be 
tested by laws in existence at the time of their issue. This 
Nation would no more injure securities which have become 
an important part of the National wealth than it would 
consider a proposition to repudiate the National debt." 

The question of rates and the treatment of railways is 
one that has two sides. The shippers are certainly entitled 
to reasonable rates; but less is an injustice to the carriers. 
Good business for the railroads is essential to general pros- 
perity. Injustice to them is not alone injustice to stock- 
holders and capitalists, whose further investments may 
be necessary for the good of the whole country, but it directly 
affects and reduces the wages of railway employees, and 
indeed may deprive them of their places entirely. 

From what has been said, the proper conclusion would 
seem to be that in attempting to determine whether the 
entire schedule of rates of a railway is excessive, the physi- 
cal valuation of the road is a relevant and important but 
not necessarily a controlling factor. 

PHYSICAL VALUATION PROPERLY USED WILL NOT GENERALLY 
IMPAIR SECURITIES 

I am confident that the fixing of rates on the principles 
suggested above would not materially impair the present 
market values of railroad securities in most cases, for I 
believe that the normal increase in the value of railroad 
properties, especially in their terminals, will more than 
make up for the possible overcapitalization in earlier years. 
In some cases, doubtless, it will be found that overcapital- 



10 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ization is made an excuse for excessive rates, and then 
they should be reduced; but the consensus of opinion seems 
to be that the railroad rates generally in this country are 
reasonably low. This is why, doubtless, the complaints 
filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission against 
excessive rates are so few as compared with those against 
unlawful discrimination in rates between shippers and 
between places. Of course, in the determination of the 
question whether discrimination is unlawful or not, the 
physical valuation of the whole road is of little weight. 

CONCLUSION THAT THERE SHOULD BE PHYSICAL 
VALUATION 

I have discussed this with some degree of detail, merely 
to point out that the valuation by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission of the tangible property of a railroad is proper 
and may from time to time be necessary in settling certain 
issues which may come before them, and that no evil or 
injustice can come from valuation in such cases, if it be under- 
stood that the result is to be used for a just purpose, and 
the right to a fair profit under all the circumstances of the 
investment is recognized. The Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission has now the power to ascertain the value of the 
physical railroad property, if necessary, in determining the 
reasonableness of rates. If the machinery for doing so 
is not adequate, as is probable, it should be made so. 

The Republican platform recommends legislation for- 
bidding the issue in the future of interstate railway stocks 
and bonds without Federal authority. It may occur in 
such cases that the full value of the railway, and, as an 
element thereof, the value of the tangible property of the 
railway, would be a relevant and important factor in assist- 
ing the proper authority to determine whether the stocks 
and bonds to be issued were to have proper security behind 
them, and in such case, therefore, there should be the 
right and machinery to make a valuation of the physical 
property. 



AND STATE PAPERS 11 

NATIONAL CONTROL OF INTERSTATE COMMERCE CORPORATION 

Another suggestion in respect to subordinate and ancil- 
lary machinery necessary to carry out Republican policies is 
that of the incorporation under National law or the licensing 
by National license or enforced registry of companies engaged 
in interstate trade. The fact is that nearly all corporations 
doing a commercial business are engaged in interstate 
commerce, and if they all were required to take out a 
Federal license or a Federal charter, the burden upon the 
interstate business of the country would become intolerable. 

SHOULD BE LIMITED TO SMALL PERCENTAGE BY 
CLASSIFICATION 

It is necessary, therefore, to devise some means for clas- 
sifying and insuring Federal supervision of such corpora- 
tions as have the power and temptation to effect restraints 
of interstate trades and monopolies. Such corporations 
constitute a very small percentage of all engaged in inter- 
state business. 

mr. Roosevelt's proposed classification 

With such classification in view, Mr. Roosevelt recom- 
mended an amendment to the anti-trust law, known as the 
Hepburn Bill, which provided for voluntary classification, 
and created a strong motive therefor by granting immunity 
from prosecution for reasonable restraints of interstate 
trade to all corporations which would register and submit 
themselves to the publicity regulations of the Department 
of Commerce and Labor. 

THE DEMOCRATIC PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION 

The Democratic platform suggests a requirement that 
corporations in interstate trade having control of 25 per 
cent, of the products in which they deal shall take out a 
Federal license. This classification would probably include 
a great many small corporations engaged in the manu- 



12 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

facture of special articles, or commodities whose total value 
is so inconsiderable that they are not really within the pur- 
view or real evil of the anti-trust law. 

It is not now necessary, however, to discuss the relative 
merit of such propositions, but it is enough merely to affirm 
the necessity for some method by which greater executive 
supervision can be given to the Federal Government over 
those businesses in which there is a temptation to viola- 
tions of the anti-trust law. 

CONSTRUCTION OF ANTI-TRUST LAW POSSIBLE NECESSITY 

FOR AMENDMENT 

The possible operation of the anti-trust law under exist- 
ing rulings of the Supreme Court has given rise to sugges- 
tions for its necessary amendment to prevent its application 
to cases which it is believed were never in the contempla- 
tion of the framers of the statute. Take two instances: 
A merchant or manufacturer engaged in a legitimate busi- 
ness that covers certain states, wishes to sell his business 
and his good will, and so in the terms of the sale obligates 
himself to the purchaser not to go into the same business 
in those states. Such a restraint of trade has always been 
enforced at common law. Again, the employees of an 
interstate railway combine and enter upon a peaceable 
and lawful strike to secure better wages. At common law 
this was not a restraint of trade or commerce or a violation 
of the rights of the company or of the public. Neither 
case ought to be made a violation of the anti-trust law. 
My own impression is that the Supreme Court would hold 
that neither of these instances is within its inhibition, but, 
if they are to be so regarded, general legislation amending 
the law is necessary. 

DEMOCRATIC PLANK TO LIMIT CORPORATIONS TO OWNER- 
SHIP of 50 PER CENT. OF PLANT AND PRODUCT FAULTY 

The suggestion of the Democratic platform that trusts 
be ended by forbidding corporations to hold more than 



AND STATE PAPERS 13 

50 per cent, of the plant in any line of manufacture is made 
without regard to the possibility of enforcement or the 
real evil in trusts. A corporation controlling 45 or 50 per 
cent, of the products may by well-known methods frequently 
effect monopoly and stamp out competition in a part of 
the country as completely as if it controlled 60 or 70 per cent, 
thereof. 

COMPULSORY SALE OF PRODUCTS AT FIXED PRICE 
IMPRACTICAL 

The proposal to compel every corporation to sell its com- 
modities at the same price the country over, allowing for 
transportation, is utterly impracticable. If it can be shown 
that in order to drive out competition, a corporation own- 
ing a large part of the plant producing an article is selling 
in one part of the country, where it has competitors, at a 
low and unprofitable price, and in another part of the 
country, where it has none, at an exorbitant price, this is 
evidence that it is attempting an unlawful monopoly, and 
justifies conviction under the anti-trust law; but the pro- 
posal to supervise the business of corporations in such a 
way as to fix the price of commodities and compel the sale 
at such price is as absurd and socialistic a plank as was 
ever inserted in a Democratic political platform. 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC 

POLICIES AND PLATFORMS: FORMER PROGRESSIVE AND 

regulative; LATTER RADICAL AND DESTRUCTIVE 

The chief difference between the Republican and the 
Democratic platforms is the difference which has hereto- 
fore been seen between the policies of Mr. Roosevelt and 
those which have been advocated by the Democratic candi- 
date, Mr. Bryan. Mr. Roosevelt's policies have been pro- 
gressive and regulative: Mr. Bryan's destructive. Mr. 
Roosevelt has favored regulation of the business in which 
evils have grown up so as to stamp out the evils and per- 
mit the business to continue. The tendency of Mr. Bryan's 



14 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

proposals has generally been destructive of the business 
with respect to which he is demanding reform. Mr. Roose- 
velt would compel the trusts to conduct their business in 
a lawful manner and secure the benefits of their operation 
and the maintenance of the prosperity of the country of 
which they are an important part; while Mr. Bryan would 
extirpate and destroy the entire business in order to stamp 
out the evils which they have practised. 

ADVANTAGE OF COMBINATION OF CAPITAL 

The combination of capital in large plants to manufac- 
ture goods with the greatest economy is just as necessary 
as the assembling of the parts of a machine to the economi- 
cal and more rapid manufacture of what in old times was 
made by hand. The Government should not interfere with 
one any more than the other, when such aggregations of 
capital are legitimate and are properly controlled, for they 
are then the natural results of modern enterprise and are 
beneficial to the public. In the proper operation of compe- 
tition the public will soon share with the manufacturer the 
advantage in economy of operation and lower prices. 

WHAT IS AN UNLAWFUL TRUST ? 

When, however, such combinations are not based on any 
economic principle, but are made merely for the purpose of 
controlling the market, to maintain or raise prices, restrict 
output and drive out competitors, the public derives no 
benefit and we have a monopoly. There must be some 
use by the company of the comparatively great size of its 
capital and plant and extent of its output, either to coerce 
persons to buy of it rather than of some competitor or to 
coerce those who would compete with it to give up their 
business. There must usually, in other words, be shown an 
element of duress in the conduct of its business toward 
the customers in the trade and its competitors before mere 
aggregation of capital or plant becomes an unlawful 
monopoly. It is perfectly conceivable that in the interest of 



AND STATE PAPERS 15 

economy of production a great number of plants may be 
legitimately assembled under the ownership of one corpora- 
tion. It is important, therefore, that such large aggrega- 
tions of capital and combinations should be controlled so 
that the public may have the advantage of reasonable prices 
and that the avenues of enterprise may be kept open to 
the individual and the smaller corporation wishing to engage 
in business. 

MERE AGGREGATION OF CAPITAL NOT A VIOLATION OF 
ANTI-TRUST LAW 

In a country like this, where, in good times, there is an 
enormous floating capital awaiting investment, the period 
before which effective competition, by construction of new 
plants, can be introduced into any business, is compara- 
tively short, rarely exceeding a year, and is usually even 
less than that. Existence of actual plant is not, therefore, 
necessary to potential competition. Many enterprises have 
been organized on the theory that mere aggregation of all, 
or nearly all, existing plants in a line of manufacture, with- 
out regard to economy of production, destroys competition. 
They have, most of them, gone into bankruptcy. Com- 
petition in a profitable business will not be affected by the 
mere aggregation of many existing plants under one company, 
unless the company thereby effects great economy, the bene- 
fit of which it shares with the public, or takes some illegal 
method to avoid competition and to perpetuate a hold on 
the business. 

PROPER TREATMENT OF TRUSTS 

Unlawful trusts should be restrained with all the efficiency 
of injunctive process, and the persons engaged in main- 
taining them should be punished with all the severity of 
criminal prosecution, in order that the methods pursued 
in the operation of their business shall be brought within 
the law. To destroy them and to eliminate the wealth they 
represent from the producing capital of the country would 



16 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

entail enormous loss, and would throw out of employment 
myriads of workingmen and workingwomen. Such a 
result is wholly unnecessary to the accomplishment of the 
needed reform, and will inflict upon the innocent far greater 
punishment than upon the guilty. 

DESTRUCTIVE POLICY OF DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM 

The Democratic platform does not propose to destroy 
the plants of the trusts physically, but it proposes to do 
the same thing in a different way. The business of this 
country is largely dependent on a protective system of 
tariffs. The business done by many of the so-called " trusts " 
is protected with the other business of the country. The 
Democratic platform proposes to take off the tariff on all 
articles coming into competition with those produced by 
the so-called " trusts," and to put them on the free list. If 
such a course would be utterly destructive of their business, 
as is intended, it would not only destroy the trusts, but all 
of their smaller competitors. The ruthless and imprac- 
ticable character of the proposition grows plainer as its 
effects upon the whole community are realized. 

EFFECT OF DEMOCRATIC PLANS ON BUSINESS 

To take the course suggested by the Democratic platform 
in these matters is to involve the entire community, inno- 
cent as it is, in the punishment of the guilty, while our policy 
is to stamp out the specific evil. This difference between 
the policies of the two great parties is of especial impor- 
tance in view of the present condition of business. After 
ten years of the most remarkable material development 
and prosperity, there came a financial stringency, a panic 
and an industrial depression. This was brought about 
not only by the enormous expansion of business plants and 
business investments which could not be readily converted, 
but also by the waste of capital, in extravagance of living, 
in wars and other catastrophes. The free convertible 
capital was exhausted. In addition to this, the confidence 



AND STATE PAPERS 17 

of the lending public in Europe and in this country had been 
affected by the revelations of irregularity, breaches of trust, 
overissues of stock, violations of law, and lack of rigid State 
or National supervision in the management of our largest 
corporations. Investors withheld what loanable capital 
remained available. It became impossible for the soundest 
railroads and other enterprises to borrow money enough 
for new construction or reconstruction. 

WILL DELAY RESTORATION OF PROSPERITY 

Gradually business is acquiring a healthier tone. Gradu- 
ally all wealth which was hoarded is coming out to be 
used. Confidence in security of business investments is 
a plant of slow growth and is absolutely necessary in order 
that our factories may all open again, in order that our 
unemployed may become employed, and in order that we 
may again have the prosperity which blessed us for ten years. 
The identity of the interests of the capitalist, the fanner, 
the business man and the wage-earner in the security and 
profit of investments cannot be loo greatly emphasized. 
I submit to those most interested, to wage-earners, to farmers, 
and to business men, whether the introduction into power 
of the Democratic party, with Mr. Bryan at its head, and 
with the business destruction that it openly advocates as 
a remedy for present evils, will bring about the needed 
confidence for the restoration of prosperity. 

REPUBLICAN' DOCTRINE OF PROTECTION 

The Republican doctrine of protection, as definitely 
announced by the Republican Convention of this year and 
by previous conventions, is that a tariff shall be imposed on 
all imported products, whether of the factory, farm or mine, 
sufficiently great to equal the difference between the cost 
of production abroad and at home, and that this difference 
should, of course, include the difference between the higher 
wages paid in this country and the wages paid abroad, and 
embrace a reasonable profit to the American producer. 



18 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

A system of protection thus adopted and put in force has 
led to the establishment of a rate of wages here that has 
greatly enhanced the standard of living of the laboring 
man. It is the policy of the Republican party permanently 
to continue that standard of living. In 1897 the Dingley 
Tariff Bill was passed, under which we have had, as already 
said, a period of enormous prosperity. 

NECESSITY FOR REVISION OF TARIFF 

The consequent material development has greatly changed 
the conditions under which many articles described by the 
schedules of the tariff are now produced. The tariff in a 
number of schedules exceeds the difference between the cost 
of production of such articles abroad and at home, including 
a reasonable profit to the American producer. The excess 
over that difference serves no useful purpose, but offers a 
temptation to those who would monopolize the production 
and the sale of such articles in this country, to profit by the 
excessive rate. On the other hand, there are some few other 
schedules in which the tariff is not sufficiently high to give 
the measure of protection which they should receive upon 
Republican principles, and as to those the tariff should be 
raised. A revision of the tariff undertaken upon this prin- 
ciple, which is at the basis of our present business system, 
begun promptly upon the incoming of the new admin- 
istration, and considered at a special session with the pre- 
liminary investigations already begun by the appropriate 
committees of the House and Senate, will make the dis- 
turbance of business incident to such a change as little as 
possible. 

DEMOCRATIC TARIFF PLAN AND ITS BAD EFFECT ON BUSINESS 

The Democratic party in its platform has not had the cour- 
age of its previous convictions on the subject of the tariff, 
denounced by it in 1904 as a system of the robbery of the 
many for the benefit of the few, but it does declare its inten- 
tion to change the tariff with a view to reaching a revenue 



AND STATE PAPERS 19 

basis and thus to depart from the protective system. The 
introduction into power of a party with this avowed purpose 
can not but halt the gradual recovery from our recent finan- 
cial depression and produce business disaster compared 
with which our recent panic and depression will seem 
small indeed. 

THE FARMER AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 

As the Republican platform says, the welfare of the 
farmer is vital to that of the whole country. One of the 
strongest hopes of returning prosperity is based on the 
business which his crops are to afford. He is vitally inter- 
ested in the restraining of excessive and unduly discrimina- 
ting railroad rates, in the enforcement of the pure food 
laws, in the promotion of scientific agriculture, and in increas- 
ing the comforts of country life, as by the extension of free 
rural delivery. The policies of the present Administra- 
tion, which have most industriously promoted all these 
objects, can not fail to commend themselves to his approval; 
and it is difficult to see how with his intelligent appreciation 
of the threat to business prosperity involved in Democratic 
success at the polls he can do otherwise than give his full 
and hearty support to the continuation of the policies of 
the present Administration under Republican auspices. 

LABOR AND WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS DONE 

FOR IT 

We come now to the question of labor. One important 
phase of the policies of the present Administration has been 
an anxiety to secure for the wage-earner an equality of 
opportunity and such positive statutory protection as shall 
place him on a level in dealing with his employer. The 
Republican parly has passed an employers' liability act 
for interstate railroads, and has established an eight-hour 
law for government employees and on government con- 
struction. The essence of the reform effected by the former 
is the abolition of the fellow-servant rule, and the intro- 



20 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

duction of the comparative negligence theory by which an 
employee injured in the service of his employer does not 
lose all his right to recover because of slight negligence on 
his part. Then there is the act providing for compensation 
for injury to government employees, together with the various 
statutes requiring safety appliances upon interstate commerce 
railroads for the protection of their employees, and limiting 
the hours of their employment. These are all instances 
of the desire of the Republican party to do justice to the 
wage-earner. Doubtless a more comprehensive measure 
for compensation of government employees will be adopted 
in the future; the principle in such cases has been recog- 
nized, and in the necessarily somewhat slow course of legis- 
lation will be more fully embodied in definite statutes. 

INTERESTS OF EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE ONLY DIFFER IN 
RESPECT TO TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT 

The interests of the employer and the employee never 
differ except when it comes to a division of the joint profit 
of labor and capital into dividends and wages. This 
must be a constant source of periodical discussion between 
the employer and the employee, as indeed are the other 
terms of the employment. 

ADVANTAGE OF UNION 

To give to employees their proper position in such a con- 
troversy, to enable them to maintain themselves against 
employers having great capital, they may well unite, 
because in union there is strength and without it each indi- 
vidual laborer and employee would be helpless. The 
promotion of industrial peace through the instrumentality 
of the trade agreement is often one of the results of such 
union when intelligently conducted. 

OTHER LABOR 

There is a large body of laborers, however, skilled and 
unskilled, who are not organized into unions. Their rights 



AND STATE PAPERS 21 

before the law are exactly the same as those of the union 
men, and are to be protected with the same care and watch- 
fulness. 

RIGHTS OF LABOR 

In order to induce their employer into a compliance with 
their request for changed terms of employment, workmen 
have a right to strike in a body. They have a right to 
use such persuasion as they may, provided it does not reach 
the point of duress, to lead their reluctant co-laborers to 
join them in their union against their employer, and they 
have a right, if they choose, to accumulate funds to support 
those engaged in a strike, to delegate to officers the power 
to direct the action of the union, and to withdraw themselves 
and their associates from dealings with, or giving custom 
to, those with whom they are in controversy. 

WHAT LABOR CAN NOT LAWFULLY DO 

What they have not the right to do is to injure their 
employer's property, to injure their employer's business by 
use of threats or methods of physical duress against those 
who would work for him, or deal with him, or by carrying 
on what is sometimes known as a secondary boycott against 
his customers or those witli whom he deals in business. 
All those who sympathize with them may unite to aid them 
in their struggle, but they may not through the instrumen- 
tality of a threatened or actual boycott compel third persons 
against their will and having no interest in their controversy 
to come to their assistance. These principles have for a 
great many years been settled by the courts of this country. 

Threatened unlawful injuries to business, like those 
described above, can only be adequately remedied by an 
injunction to prevent them. The jurisdiction of a court of 
equity to enjoin in such cases arises from the character of 
the injury and the method of inflicting it and the fact that 
suit for damages offers no adequate remedy. The unlaw- 
ful injury is not usually done by one single act, which might 



22 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

be adequately compensated for in damages by a suit at 
law, but it is the result of a constantly recurring series of 
acts, each of which in itself might not constitute a substan- 
tial injury or make a suit at law worth while, and all of 
which would require a multiplicity of suits at law. Injuries 
of this class have since the foundation of courts of equity 
been prevented by injunction. 

It has been claimed that injunctions do not issue to pro- 
tect anything but property rights, and that business is not 
a property right; but such a proposition is wholly incon- 
sistent with all the decisions of the courts. The Supreme 
Court of the United States says that the injunction is a 
remedy to protect property or rights of a pecuniary nature, 
and we may well submit to the considerate judgment of all 
laymen whether the right of a man in his business is not as 
distinctly a right of a pecuniary nature as the right to his 
horse or his house or the stock of goods on his shelf; and 
the instances in which injunctions to protect business have 
been upheld by all courts are so many that it is futile further 
to discuss the proposition. 

It is difficult to tell the meaning of the Democratic plat- 
form upon this subject. It says: 

"Questions of judicial practice have arisen especially in 
connection with industrial disputes. We deem that the par- 
ties to all judicial proceedings should be treated with rigid 
impartiality, and that injunctions should not be issued in 
any cases in which injunctions would not issue if no indus- 
trial dispute were involved." 

This declaration is disingenuous. It seems to have been 
loosely drawn with the especial purpose of rendering it 
susceptible to one interpretation by one set of men and 
to a diametrically opposite interpretation by another. It 
does not aver that injunctions should not issue in industrial 
disputes, but only that they should not issue merely because 
they are industrial disputes, and yet those responsible for 
the declaration must have known that no one has ever 



AND STATE PAPERS 23 

maintained that the fact that a dispute was industrial gave 
any basis for issuing an injunction in reference thereto. 

The declaration seems to be drawn in its present vague 
and ambiguous shape in order to persuade some people 
that it is a declaration against the issuing of injunctions 
in any industrial dispute, while at the same time it may 
be possible to explain to the average plain citizen who 
objects to class distinction that no such intention exists 
at all. Our position is clear and unequivocal. We are 
anxious to prevent even an appearance of any injustice 
to labor in the issuance of injunctions, not in a spirit of 
favoritism to one set of our fellow citizens, but of justice 
to all of our fellow citizens. The reason for exercising or 
refusing to exercise the power of injunction must be found 
in the character of the unlawful injury and not in the charac- 
ter or class of the persons who inflicl this injury. 

The man who has a business which is being unlawfully 
injured is entitled to the remedies which the law has always 
given him. no matter who has inflicted the injuries. Other- 
wise, we shall have class legislation unjust in principle and 
likely to sap the foundations of a free government. 

NOTICE AND HEARING BEFORE ISSUE OF INJUNCTION 

I come now to the question of notice before issuing an 
injunction. It is a fundamental rule of general jurispru- 
dence that no man shall be affected by a judicial proceeding 
without notice and hearing. This rule, however, has some- 
times had an exception in the issuing of temporary restraining 
orders commanding a defendant in effect to maintain the 
status </ii(> until a hearing. Such a process should issue 
only in rare cases where the threatened change of the status 
quo would inflict irreparable injury if time were taken 
to give notice and a summary hearing. The unlawful 
injury usual in industrial disputes, such as I have described, 
does not become formidable except after sufficient time in 
which lo trive the defendants notice and a hearing. I do 
not mean to say that there may not be cases even in indus- 



U PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

trial disputes where a restraining order might properly be 
issued without notice, but, generally, I think it is otherwise. 
In some State courts, and in fewer Federal courts, the prac- 
tice of issuing a temporary restraining order without notice, 
merely to preserve the status quo on the theory that it will 
not hurt anybody, has been too common. Many of us recall 
that the practice has been pursued in other than industrial 
disputes, as, for instance, in corporate and stock controversies 
like those over the Erie Railroad, in which a stay order 
without notice was regarded as a step of great advantage 
to the one who secured it, and a corresponding disadvan- 
tage to the one against whom it was secured. Indeed, 
the chances of doing injustice on an ex parte application 
are much increased over those when a hearing is granted, 
and there may be circumstances under which it may affect 
the defendant to his detriment. In the case of a lawful strike, 
the sending of a formidable document restraining a number 
of defendants from doing a great many different things 
which the plaintiff avers they are threatening to do, often 
so discourages men always reluctant to go into a strike from 
continuing what is their lawful right. This has made the 
laboring man feel that an injustice is done in the issuing 
of a writ without notice. I conceive that in the treatment 
of this question it is the duty of the citizen and the legis- 
lator to view the subject from the standpoint of the man 
who believes himself to be unjustly treated, as well as from 
that of the community at large. I have suggested the remedy 
of returning in such cases to the original practice under the 
old statute of the United States and the rules in equity 
adopted by the Supreme Court, which did not permit the 
issuing of an injunction without notice. In this respect, 
the Republican Convention has adopted another remedy, 
that, without going so far, promises to be efficacious in 
securing proper consideration in such cases by courts, by 
formulating into a legislative act the best present practice. 
Under this recommendation, a statute may be framed 
which shall define with considerable particularity, and 



VXD STATE PAPERS 25 

emphasize the exceptional character of the cases in which 
restraining orders may issue without notice, and which shall 
also provide that when they are issued, they shall cease to 
he operative beyond a short period, during which time 
notice shall he served and a hearing had unless the defendant 
desires a postponement of the hearing. By this provision 
the injustice which has sometimes occurred by which a 
preliminary restraining order of widest application has 
been issued without notice, and the hearing of the motion 
for the injunction has been fixed weeks and months after 
its date, could not recur. 

SMALL NUMBER OF CASES FURNISH GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT 

The number of instances in which restraining orders 
without notice in industrial disputes have issued by federal 
courts is small, and it is urged that they do not therefore 
constitute an evil to be remedied by statutory amendment. 
The small number of cases complained of above shows 
the careful manner in which most Federal judges have 
exercised the jurisdiction, but the belief that such cases are 
numerous has been so widespread and has aroused such 
feeling of injustice that more definite specification in pro- 
cedure lo prevent recurrence of them is justified if it can 
be effected without injury to the administration of the law. 

\o PROVISION I\ DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM AS to NOTICE 

With respect to notice, the Democratic platform contains 
no recommendation. Its only intelligible declaration in 
regard to injunction suits is a reiteration of the plank in the 
platforms of 1S!)(> and 1904 providing that in prosecutions 
for contempl in Federal courts, where the violation of the 
order constituting the contempt charged is indirect, i.e., 
outside of the presence of the court, there shall be a jury trial. 

DANGEROUS ATTACK ON POWER OF COURTS 

This provision in the platform of 189G was regarded then 
as a most dangerous attack upon the power of the courts 



26 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to enforce their orders and decrees, and it was one of the 
chief reasons for the defeat of the Democratic party in that 
contest, as it ought to have been. The extended operation 
of such provision to weaken the power of the courts in the 
enforcement of its lawful orders can hardly be overstated. 

EFFECT OF JURY TRIAL 

Under such a provision a recalcitrant witness who refuses 
to obey a subpoena may insist on a jury trial before the court 
can determine that he received the subpcena. A citizen 
summoned as a juror and refusing to obey the writ when 
brought into court must be tried by another jury to deter- 
mine whether he got the summons. Such a provision 
applies not alone to injunctions, but to every order which 
the court issues against persons. A suit may be tried in 
the court of first instance and carried to the Court of Appeals, 
and thence to the Supreme Court, and a judgment and decree 
entered and an order issued, and then if the decree involves 
the defendant's doing anything or not doing anything, and 
he disobeys it, the plaintiff who has pursued his remedies 
in lawful course for years must, to secure his rights, undergo 
the uncertainties and the delays of a jury trial before he can 
enjoy that which is his right by the decision of the highest 
court of the land. I say without hesitation that such a change 
will greatly impair the indispensable power and authority 
of the courts. In securing to the public the benefits of the 
new statutes enacted in the present Administration, the ulti- 
mate instrumentality to be resorted to is the courts of the 
United States. If now their authority is to be weakened 
in a manner never known in the history of the jurisprudence 
of England or America, except in the constitution of Okla- 
homa, how can we expect that such statutes will have efficient 
enforcement? Those who advocate this intervention of 
a jury in such cases seem to suppose tliat this change in some 
way will inure only to the benefit of the poor workingman. 
As a matter of fact, the person who will secure chief ad- 
vantage from it is the wealthy and unscrupulous defendant, 



AND STATE PAPERS 27 

able to employ astute and cunning counsel and anxious to 
avoid justice 

I have been willing, in order to avoid a popular bill 
unfounded impression that a judge, in punishing for con- 
tempt of his own order, may be affected by personal feeling, 
to approve a law which should enable the contemnor upon 
his application to have another judge sit to hear the charge 
of contempt, but this, with so many judges as there are 
available in the Federal court, would not constitute a delay 
in the enforcement of the process. The character and effi- 
ciency of the trial would be the same. It is the nature and 
the delay of a jury trial in such cases that those who would 
wish to defy the order of the court would rely upon as a 
reason for doing so. 

MAINTENANCE OF FULL POWEB OF COURTS NECESSARY TO 

Wulli \\ \l(( II V 

The administration of justice lies at the foundation <>f 
government. The maintenance of authority of the courts 
is essential unless we are prepared to embrace anar< 
Never in the history of the country has there been 
such an insidious attack upon the judicial system as the 
proposal to interject a jury trial between all orders of 
the court made after full hearing and the enforcement of 
such orders. 

THE CURRENCY s> SI EM 

The late panic disclosed a lack of elasticity in our finan- 
cial system. This has been provisionally met by an act 
of the present Congress permitting the issue of additional 
emergency bank notes, and insuring their withdrawal when 
the emergency has passed, by a high rate of taxation. It 
is drawn in conformity with the present system of bank- 
note currency but varies from it in certain respects by 
authorizing the use of commercial paper and bonds of good 
credit, as well as United States bonds, as security for its 
redemption. It is expressly but a temporary measure and 



28 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

contains a provision for the appointment of a currency 
commission to devise and recommend a new and reformed 
system of currency. This inadequacy of our present cur- 
rency system, due to changed conditions and enormous 
expansion, is generally recognized. The Republican plat- 
form well states that we must have a "more elastic and 
adaptable system to meet the requirements of agriculturists, 
manufacturers, merchants and business men generally, 
which must be automatic in operation, recognizing the fluc- 
tuations in interest rates," in which every dollar shall be 
as good as gold, and which shall prevent rather than aid 
financial stringency in bringing on a panic. 

POSTAL SAVINGS BANK AND ITS ADVANTAGES 

In addition to this, the Republican platform recommends 
the adoption of a postal - savings - bank system in which, 
of course, the Government would become responsible 
to the depositors for the payment of principal and inter- 
est. It is thought that the government guaranty will 
bring out of hoarding - places much money which may 
be turned into wealth-producing capital, and that it 
will be a great incentive for thrift in the many small 
places in the country having now no savings-bank facili- 
ties, which are reached by the Post Office Department. 
It will bring to every one, however remote from finan- 
cial centers, a place of perfect safety for deposits, with 
interest return. The bill now pending in Congress, which 
of course the Republican Convention had in mind, pro- 
vides for the investment of the money deposited in Na- 
tional banks in the very places in which it is gathered, 
or as near thereto as may be practicable. This is an 
answer to the criticism contained in the Democratic plat- 
form that under the system the money gathered in the 
country will be deposited in Wall Street banks. The system 
of postal savings banks has been tried in so many countries 
successfully that it cannot be regarded longer as a new and 
untried experiment. 



AND STATE PAPERS 29 

OBJECTIONS TO DEMOCRATIC PROPOSAL TO ENFOR< I. [NSUR- 
ANCE OF BANK DEPOSITS 

The Democratic platform recommends a tax upon 
National banks and upon such State hanks as may come in, 
in the nature of enforced insurance, to raise a guaranty 
fund to pay the depositors of any hank which fails. How 
State banks can be included in such a scheme under the 
Constitution is left in the twilighl zone of Stale's rights and 
Federalism so frequently dimming the meaning and pur- 
pose of the promises of the platform. If they come in under 
such a system, they must necessarily he brought within the 
closest National control, and so they must really cease to 
be State banks and become National banks. 

The proposition is to tax the honesl and prudent banker 
to make up for the dishonesty and imprudence of others. 
No one can foresee the burden which under this system 
would be imposed upon the sound and conservative bankers 
of the country by this obligation to make good the losses 
caused by the reckless, speculative ami dishonest men who 
would be enabled to -cine deposits under such a system 
on the faith of the proposed insurance; as in its present 
shape tin* proposal would remove .ill safeguards against 
recklessness in banking, and the chief, and in the end prob- 
ably the only benefit, would accrue to the speculator, who 
would be delighted to enter the banking business when it 
was certain that he could enjoy any profit that would accrue, 
while the risk would have to be assumed by his honesl and 
hard-working fellow. In short, the proposal is wholly 
impracticable unless it is to be accompanied by a complete 
revolution in our banking system, with a supervision so 
close as practically to create a government bank. If the 
proposal were adopted exactly as the Democratic platform 
suggests, it would bring the whole banking system of the 
country down in ruin, and this proposal is itself an excellent 
illustration of the fitness for National control of a party 
which will commit itself to a scheme of this nature without 



30 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the slightest sense of responsibility for the practical opera- 1 
tion of the law proposed. 

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS MUCH TO BE PREFERRED 

The Democratic party announces its adhesion to this 
plan, and only recommends the tried system of postal sav- 
ings banks as an alternative if the new experimental panacea 
is not available. The Republican party prefers the postal 
savings bank as one tried, safe, and known to be effective, 
and as reaching many more people now without banking 
facilities than the new system proposed. 

VOLUNTARY PLAN FOR GUARANTY 

A plan for guaranty of deposits by the voluntary act 
of the banks involved has been favorably reported to the 
House of Representatives. This is, of course, entirely 
different from the scheme in the Democratic platform, 
omitting, as it does, the feature of compulsory participation. 
This proposition will unquestionably receive the thoughtful 
consideration of the National Monetary Commission. 

REPUBLICAN POLICIES AS TO DEPENDENCIES 

The Republican party has pursued consistently the policy 
originally adopted with respect to the dependencies which 
came to us as the result of the Spanish war. 

PORTO RICO 

The material prosperity of Porto Rico and the progress 
of its inhabitants toward better conditions in respect to 
comfort of living and education, should make every Ameri- 
can proud that this nation has been an efficient instrument 
in bringing happiness to a million people. 

CUBA 

In Cuba, the provisional government established in order 
to prevent a bloody revolution has so administered affairs 



AND STATE PAPERS 31 

and initiated the necessary laws as to make it possible to 
turn back the island to the lawfully elected officers of the 

Republic in February next. 

PHILIPPINES 

In the Philippines the experiment of a national assembly 
has justified itself, both as an assistance in the government 
of the islands and as an education in the practice of self- 
government to the people of the islands. We have estab- 
lished a government with effective and honest executive 
departments, and a clean and fearless administration of 
justice; we have created and are maintaining a compre- 
hensive school system which is educating the youth of the 
islands in English and in industrial branches; we have 
constructed great governmenl public works, roads and har- 
bors; we have induced the private construction of eight 
hundred miles of railroad; we have policed the islands so 
that their condition as to law and order is better now than 
it ever has been in their history. It is quite unlikely that 
the people, because of the dense ignorance of 90 per cent., 
will be ready for complete self-government and indepen- 
dence before two generations have passed, but the policy of 
increasing partial self-governmenl step by step as the people 
shall show themselves lit for it should be continued. 

PROPOSITION OF DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM MEANS CHAOS 

The proposition of the Democratic platform is to turn 
over the islands as soon as a stable governmenl is estab- 
lished. This has been established. The proposal then is 
in effect to turn them over at once. Such action will lead to 
ultimate chaos in the islands and the progress among the 
ignorant masses in education and better living will slop. 
We are engaged in the Philippines in a great missionary 
work that does our nation honor, and is certain to pro- 
mote in a most effective way the influence of Christian 
civilization. It is cowardly to lay down the burden until 
our purpose is achieved. 



32 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

HOPE OF PROSPERITY IN CHANGE IN TARIFF RECOMMENDED 
BY REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 

Many unfortunate circumstances beyond human control 
have delayed the coming of business prosperity to the 
islands. Much may be done in this regard by increasing 
the trade between the islands and the United States, under 
tariff laws permitting reciprocal free trade in the respective 
products of the two countries, with such limitations as to 
sugar and tobacco imported into the United States as will 
protect domestic interests. The admission of 350,000 tons 
of sugar from the Philippine Islands in a foreign importa- 
tion of 1,600,000 tons, will have no effect whatever upon 
the domestic sugar interests of the United States, and yet 
such an importation from the Philippine Islands, not likely 
to be reached in ten years, will bring about the normal 
state of prosperity in these islands in reference to sugar 
culture. 

The same thing is true of a similar limitation on the 
importation of tobacco. It is not well for the Philippines 
to develop the sugar industry to such a point that the busi- 
ness of the islands shall be absorbed in it, because it makes 
a society in which there are wealthy landowners, holding 
very large estates, with valuable and expensive plants, and 
a large population of unskilled labor. In such a com- 
munity there is no farming or middle class tending 
to build up a conservative, self-respecting community, 
capable of self-government. There are many other prod- 
ucts, notably that of Manila hemp, to which the energy 
of the islands can be, and is being, directed, the culti- 
vation of which develops the class of small and intelligent 
farmers. 

MISCONCEPTION AS TO ANNUAL COST OF PHILIPPINES 

One misconception of fact with respect to our Philippine 
policy is that it is costing the people of the United States 
a vast annual sum. The expenses of the war in the Philip- 



AND STATE PAPERS 33 

pines from 1898 to 1902 involved the Government in an 
expenditure of less than $175,000,000. This was incident 
to war. The fact is that since the close of the war in 1902 
and the restoration of order in the islands, the extra cost 
of the American troops of the regular army in the islands, 
together with that of maintaining about 4,000 Philippine 
scouts as a part of the regular army, does not exceed 
$6,000,000 annually. This is all the expense to which the 
United States has been put for five or six years la ^t past. 
The expenses of the Civil Government in the islands since 
its establishment bave been mel entirely from the proceeds 
of taxes collected in the islands, with but one notably gener- 
ous and commendable exception when the Congress of the 
United Stales appropriated $3,000,000 in 1902 to relieve 
the inhabitants of the islands from the dangers of famine 
and distress caused by the death from rinderpest of three- 
fourths of the cattle of the islands. 

VETERANS OF COUNTRY'S WARS 

Both platforms declare, as they should, in favor of 
generous pensions for the veterans of the Civil and Spanish 
wars. I stop to note the presence here of a body of vet- 
erans of Ohio, and to express my thanks for the honor 
they do me in coming. I am lacking in one qualification 
of all Republican Presidents since Lincoln, thai of having 
been exposed to danger and death on the held of battle in 
defense of our country. I hope that this lack will not make 
the veterans think I am any le^s deeply thrilled by the 
memory of their great comrades gone before — Grant. 
Hayes, Garfield, Harrison and McKinley — all sons of 
Ohio, who left records reflecting glory upon their State 
and Nation, or that my sympathies with the valor and 
courage and patriotism of those who faced death in the 
country's crises are any less earnest and sincere than they 
would be had I the right to wear a button of the Grand 
Army or of the veteran association of any of our country's 
wars. 



34 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

THE RIGHTS AND PROGRESS OF THE NEGRO 

The Republican platform refers to the amendments 
to the Constitution that were passed by the Republican 
party for the protection of the Negro. The Negro, in the 
forty years since he was freed from slavery, has made 
remarkable progress. He is becoming a more and more 
valuable member of the communities in which he lives. 
The education of the Negro is being expanded and improved 
in every way. The best men of both races, at the North 
as well as at the South, ought to rejoice to see growing up 
among the Southern people an influential element disposed 
to encourage the Negro in his hard struggle for industrial 
independence and assured political status. The Repub- 
lican platform, adopted at Chicago, explicitly demands 
justice for all men without regard to race or color, and 
just as explicitly declares for the enforcement, and without 
reservation, in letter and spirit, of the Thirteenth, Four- 
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. 
It is needless to state that I stand with my party squarely 
on that plank in the platform, and believe that equal justice 
to all men, and the fair and impartial enforcement of these 
amendments is in keeping with the real American spirit 
of fair play. 

ARMY AND NAVY 

Mr. McKinley and Mr. Roosevelt, and the Republican 
party, have constantly advocated a policy with respect to 
the Army and Navy that will keep this Republic ready at 
all times to defend her territory and her doctrines, and to 
assure her appropriate part in promoting permanent tran- 
quillity among the nations. I welcome from whatever motive 
the change in the Democratic attitude toward the main- 
tenance and support of an adequate Navy, and hope that 
in the next platform the silence of the present platform, in 
respect to the Army, will be changed to an acquiescence 
in its maintenance to the point of efficiency in connection 



AND STATE PAPERS 35 

with the efficiently reorganized militia and the National 
volunteers, for the proper defense of the country in time 
of war, and the discharge of those duties in time 
of peace for which the Army, as at present constituted. 
has shown itself so admirably adapted in the Philippines, 
in San Francisco, in Cuba, and elsewhere. We arc a world 
power and cannot help it, and, although at peace with all 
the world and secure in the consciousness that the American 
people do not desire and will not provoke a war with any 
other country, we must be prudent and not be lulled into 
a -ruse of security which would possibly expose us to national 
humiliation. Our best course, therefore, is to insist on a 
constant improvement in our navy and its maintenance 
at the highest point of efficiency. 

PROTECTION OF CITIZENS ABROAD 

The position which our country has won under Repub- 
lican administrations before the world should inure to the 
benefil of every our. even the humblest of those entitled 
to look to the American Hag for protection, without regard 
to race, creed or color, and whether he is a citizen of the 
United Stales or of any of our dependencies. In some 
countries with which we are on friendly terms, distinctions 
are made in respect to the treatmenl of our citizens travelling 
abroad and having passports of our Executive, based on 
considerations that are repugnant to the principles of our 
Government and civilization. The Republican party ami 
administration will continue to make every proper endeavor 
to secure the abolition of such distinctions, which in our 
eyes arc both needless and opprobrious. 

\>l VI'IC LMMIGK \T1<>\ 

In the matter of the limitation upon Asiatic immigration, 
referred to in the Democratic platform, it is sufficient to 
say that the present Republican Administration has shown 
itself able, by diplomatic negotiation, and without unnec- 
essary friction with self-respecting governments to minimize 



36 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the evils suggested, and a subsequent Republican Adminis- 
tration may be counted on to continue the same policy. 

CONSERVATION OF NATIONAL RESOURCES 

The conservation of National resources is a subject to 
which the present Administration has given especial atten- 
tion. The necessity for a comprehensive and systematic 
improvement of our waterways, the preservation of our soil, 
and of our forests, the securing from private appropriation 
the power in the navigable streams, the retention of the 
undisposed-of coal lands of the Government from alienation, 
all will properly claim from the next Administration earnest 
attention and appropriate legislation. 

NATIONAL HEALTH BUREAU 

I have long been of the opinion that the various agencies 
of the National Government established for the preserva- 
tion of the National health, scattered through several depart- 
ments, should be rendered more efficient by uniting them 
in a bureau of the Government under a competent head, 
and that I understand to be, in effect, the recommendation 
of both parties. 

PUBLICITY OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND 
EXPENDITURES 

Another plank of the Democratic platform refers to the 
failure of the Republican Convention to express an opinion 
in favor of the publicity of contributions received and expen- 
ditures made in elections. Here again we contrast our 
opponents' promises with our own acts. Great improve- 
ment has taken place under Republican auspices in respect 
to the collection and expenditure of money for this purpose. 
The old and pernicious system of levying a tax on the salaries 
of Government employees in order to pay the expenses of 
the party in control of the Administration has been abolished 
by statute. By a law passed by the Republican Congress 
in 1907, contributions from corporations to influence or 



AND STATE PAPERS 37 

pay the expenses connected with the election of presidential 
electors or of members of Congress, is forbidden under 
penalty. 

A resident of New York has been selected as treasurer 
of the Republican National Committee, who was treasurer 
of the Republican State Committee when Governor Hughes 
was elected in New York, and who made a complete state- 
ment within twenty days after the election, as required by 
the New York law, of the contributions received by him 
and the expenditures made by him or under his authority 
in connection with that election. His residence and the 
discharge of his duties in the State of New York subject 
him to the law of that Slate as to all receipts of the treasury 
of the National Committee from whatever source, and as 
to .ill its disbursements. His returns will be under the 
obligations and penalties of the law. and a misstatement 
by him or the tiling of a false account will subject hini to 
prosecution for perjury and violation of the statute. Of 
course, under the Federal law. he is not permitted to receive 
any contributions from corporations. 

If I am elected President. I shall urge upon Congress, 
with every hope of success, that a law be passed requiring 
the filing in a Federal office of a statemenl of the contribu- 
tions received by committees and candidates in elections 
for members of Congress, and in such other elections as are 
constitutionally within the control of Congress. Mean- 
time the Republican party by the selection of a New York 
treasurer has subjected all its receipts and expenditures 
to the compulsory obligation of such a law. 

INCOME l W 

The Democratic platform demands two constitutional 
amendments, one providing for an income tax, and the 
other for the election of Senators by the people. In my 
judgment, an amendment to the Constitution for an income 
tax is not necessary. I believe that an income tax. when 
the protective system of customs and the internal revenue 



38 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

tax shall not furnish income enough for governmental 
needs, can and should be devised which under the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court will conform to the Con- 
stitution. 

ELECTION OF SENATORS 

With respect to the election of Senators by the people, 
personally I am inclined to favor it, but it is hardly a party 
question. A resolution in its favor has passed a Repub- 
lican House of Representatives several times and has been 
rejected in a Republican Senate by the votes of Senators 
from both parties. It has been approved by the Legis- 
latures of many Republican States. In a number of States, 
both Democratic and Republican, substantially such a 
system now prevails. 

INACCURACY AND INSINCERITY OF DEMOCRATIC CHARGES OF 
EXTRAVAGANCE IN INCREASE OF OFFICES 
AND EXPENDITURES 

Our opponents denounce the Republican party for 
increasing the number of offices 23,000, at a cost of sixteen 
millions of dollars, during the last year. Such denuncia- 
tion is characteristic of the Democratic platform. It fails 
to specify in any way what the offices are, and leaves the 
inference that the increase was resisted by the representa- 
tives of Democracy in Congress. As a matter of fact, the 
net number of offices increased was just about half the 
number stated; the increase was due chiefly to the enlarge- 
ment of the Navy, the construction of the Panama Canal, 
the extension of the Rural Free Delivery, and to the new 
offices necessary in the enforcement of the pure food, meat 
inspection, railroad rate regulation, arid land reclamation, 
forest preservation and other measures which Congress 
passed with almost unanimous popular approval. The 
Democratic platform so far from attacking any of this 
legislation specifically approves much, and condemns none 
of it, and it is of course disingenuous to claim credit for 



AND STATE PAPERS 39 

approving legislation and yet to denounce the expenditures 
necessary to give it effect. 

CHARGE OF DEFICIT 

Again, it charges that a deficit of sixty millions of dol- 
lars between the receipts and expenditures during the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1908, occurred. As explained by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, at least half of this deficit is 
only an apparent one. The falling off in receipts was, of 
course, occasioned by the unusual panic, but there is ample 
free money in the Treasury to meet the difference, and the 
difference itself is not half of it properly a deficit, because 
involved in it was the retirement of some thirty-three mil- 
lions of the bonds of the Government. 

During the pasl seven years the income and expendi- 
tures of the Government have been nearly equal, some 
years showing a surplus, and others, fewer in number, a 
deficit. Taking one year with another, including this year, 
there has been an average surplus. The surplus last year, 
for instance, was greater than the deficit this year, so that, 
in fact, under the present administration there has been no 
deficit, but a surplus, which is actually in the Treasury. 

The Democratic platform nowhere points out the expen- 
ditures which might be reduced <>r avoided. It would be 
found generally that to the increases which have occurred. 
Democratic representatives in Congress made no opposi- 
tion, but rather supported the measures providing them, 
and now the party has not the courage to indicate what 
part of Governmenl cost it would end. It joins the 
Republican party specifically in approving the outlay of 
$150, ()()(), ()()<» as pensions. It expressly favors also the 
cost of greatly increased River and Harbor improvements, 
the cost of doubling the Navy, and of many other enter- 
prises to which it urges the Government. Its attack, there- 
fore, has nothing in it either of fairness or sincerity. 

The truth is that it is known of all fair-minded men 
that there never has been an administration in the Govern- 



40 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ment more efficiently conducted, more free from scandal, 
and in which the standard of official duty has been set higher 
than in the present Republican Administration, which the 
Democratic platform has thus denounced. It has had to 
meet the problems arising from the enormous expansion 
of Government functions under the new legislative measures 
as well as in the new dependencies, and in the greatest 
constructive work of modern times, the Panama Canal, 
and its members may well feel a just pride in the exceptional 
record for efficiency, economy, honesty and fidelity which 
it has made. We may rely upon our record in this regard 
in an appeal to the American people for their approval. 

The foreign policy of this country under the present 
x\dministration has greatly contributed to the peace of the 
world. The important part the Administration took in 
bringing about an end of the Russian-Japanese War by a 
treaty honorable to both parties, and the prevention of wars 
in Central America and Cuba are striking instances of this. 
The arbitration treaties signed with all the important 
nations of the world mark a great step forward in the devel- 
opment of the usefulness of The Hague tribunal. The 
visit of Secretary Root to South America emphasized our 
friendship for our sister republics which are making such 
strides in the southern hemisphere, and met with a most 
cordial and gratifying response from our Latin-American 
colleagues. The assistance which we are rendering in Santo 
Domingo to enable that Government to meet its obliga- 
tions and avoid anarchy is another instance of successful 
work of this Administration in helping our neighbors. 

This Administration has by the promptness, skill and 
energy of its negotiations secured dominion in the Canal 
Zone of the Isthmus of Panama, without which the con- 
struction of the canal would have been impossible. It 
has subdued the heretofore insurmountable obstacle of dis- 
ease and made the place of work healthy. It has created 
such an organization that in six years certainly, and prob- 
ably in less, the Atlantic and Pacific will be united, to the 



AND STATE TAPERS 41 

everlasting benefit of the world's commerce, and the effec- 
tiveness of our Navy will he doubled. 

The mere statement of the things actually done by this 
Administration at home, in our dependencies, and in foreign 
affairs shows a marvel of successful accomplishment, and if 
ever a party has entitled itself to the approval of its works 
by a renewed mandate of power from the people whom it 
served, it is the Republican party in the present campaign. 

The only respect in which nothing has been done is in 
the development of our foreign marine. As long as we 
uphold the system of protection for our home industries we 
must recognize that it is ineffectual t<> assist those of our 
citizens engaged in the foreign shipping business, because 
there is no feasible means of excluding foreign competition, 
and that the only other method of building up such a busi- 
ness is by direct aid in the form of a mail subsidy. I am in 
favor of the hill considered in the lasl Congress as a tenta- 
tive step. The establishment of direct steamship lines 
between our Atlantic ports and South America would cer- 
tainly do much to develop a trade that might lie made far 
greater. On the Pacific, the whole shipping trade threatens 
to pass into the control of Japan, Something ought to be 
done, and the hill which failed was a step in the right direc- 
tion. 

INDEPENDENT DEM< ICRATS 

The Democratic party under its present leadership 
in previous campaigns has manifested a willingness to 

embrace any doctrine which would win votes, with little 
sense of responsibility for its practical operation. In 
its striving for success it has ignored the business prosperity 
of the country, has departed from sound economic and 
governmental principles, and has reversed its own traditional 
views of constitutional construction. Patriotic members 
of the party have refused to lie controlled by parly ties, 
and have either refrained from voting or have supported 
the Republican candidate. May we not appeal to these 



42 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

courageous and independent citizens again to give us their 
support in this campaign, because the reasons for their 
breaking the bonds of party are stronger to-day than ever 
before ? 

LENGTH OF SPEECH MADE NECESSARY BY NUMEROUS ISSUES 

I have now reviewed at great length the principles at 
issue between the two parties. When I began the prepara- 
tion of this speech of acceptance I had hoped to make it 
much briefer than it is, but I found on an examination of 
the platform and on a consideration of the many measures 
passed during the present Administration and the issues 
arising out of them, that it was impossible to deal with the 
subjects comprehensively with proper explanation and 
qualification in a short discussion. This is my excuse. 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARTIES! PROSPERITY WITH REPUB- 
LICAN SUCCESS; BUSINESS DISASTER WITH 
DEMOCRATIC VICTORY 

I have pointed out that the attitude of the Republican 
party with reference to evils which have crept in, due to 
the enormous material expansion of this country, is to con- 
tinue the Roosevelt policies of progress and regulation, 
while the attitude of the Democratic party under its pres- 
ent leadership is the change for the sake of change to the 
point of irresponsible destruction, and that there is no hope 
whatever of a restoration of prosperity in returning it to 
power. As said in our platform, we Republicans go before 
the country asking the support, not only of those who have 
acted with us heretofore, but of all our fellow citizens who, 
regardless of past political differences, unite in the desire to 
maintain the policies, perpetuate the blessings and make 
secure the achievements of a greater America. 



II 

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY'S APPEAL * 

THE Independent asks me to write on the issues of the 
campaign. My time is so occupied that I must do 
it in great haste. To my mind, the issues of the campaign 
are not different from those which arise in every Presidential 
election, to wit, whether the work of the existing Adminis- 
tration shall be approved by continuing in power the same 
party, or shall he condemned by turning the administration 
of the country's affairs over to the Democratic party. 

It can hardly be denied that the administration of the 
Republican party under Mr. McKinley and under Mr. 
Roosevelt has been ;i wonderful series of successes in meeting 
the new and unprecedented problems which have presented 
themselves in that period. The successful carrying on of the 
Spanish War, the establishment <»t' the Cuban Government, 
and its re-establish menl ju^l now promising entire success, 
the carrying on of the Philippine War, the suppression of the 
rebellion and the establishment of tranquillity and of a 

government which is working great g 1 in the Islands, the 

successful elaboration of the reclamation of arid lands in ihe 
West, the enactment of the pure food and meat inspection 
laws, the enlargement of the navy, the reorganization and 
great improvement of the army, the continuation of the coasl 
defenses, the successful organization and rapid work toward 
completion of the Panama Canal, the establishment of the 
position of this nation as one of the most influential in the 
world, and the use of the influence thus gained to promote 
the peace of the world, as shown in the close of the Russian- 
Japanese War, the settlement of Central American wars, 

* Written by Mr. Taft as candidate of the Republican party for President of the 
United States, and published in Tlu h >■;, pi , ■,/, nt Oct 15, 190K. 
[Reprinted by permission of Tht Indi p< ndent.] 

43 



44 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and the making closer the bonds between this country and 
the South American republics, are all definite things done 
under the administration of the Republican party which 
entitle it to the confidence of the people and their belief in its 
courage and efficiency as an agency in government to effect 
results. 

After the disastrous operation of the Gorman-Wilson 
Tariff Bill, the Republican party became responsible for 
the passage of the Dingley Bill, and under that bill, whether 
it was the sole cause or not, the country was enabled to enjoy 
a prosperity and an expansion of wealth and material progress 
never before seen in the world. 

It is said now, and truly said, that the tariff rates are 
generally in excess of what is required by the principle of 
protection, to wit, they exceed the difference in the cost of 
production of the same class of articles in this country and 
abroad. The Republican party is pledged, at a special 
session of Congress, to take up the tariff schedules and to 
modify them, so that they shall no longer be excessive; but 
it also pledges itself to maintain the protective system, upon 
which a great part of the manufacturing industries of this 
country and the whole business system rests. 

In the course of the unprecedented prosperity and expan- 
sion, evils crept into our community, consisting of the viola- 
tion of the anti-trust law and the illegal creation of unlawful 
monopolies which were fostered by combining a large part 
of the plants engaged in the production of the article in 
question, and by the use of secret rebates and unlawful dis- 
criminations in the matter of transportation by the railroads, 
so as to render helpless the less powerful competitors of the 
illegal monopoly. More than this, in railroad circles it 
became clear that the power of issuing stocks and bonds of 
a par value far in excess of the real value of the property 
represented by such securities had been used by unscrupulous 
railroad managers to combine railroad properties and con- 
centrate the control of them in the hands of one man or a 
few men. These evils, which forced themselves upon public 



AND STATE PAPERS 45 

notice most emphatically because of revelations the result 
of official investigation by State and National authority, were 
at once taken up by the Republican Administration under 
Mr. Roosevelt. A railroad rate law was passed, giving greatly 
increased power to the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
and prosecutions under the anti-trust law were begun and 
pressed with a vigor never before shown. The time was 
ripe, because the construction of the anti-trust law by the 
slow course of judicial decision had finally become sufficiently 
clear to make successful prosecutions possible. At the same 
time with the railroad rate bill were enacted the measures 
already referred to, the pure food law and the meat inspec- 
tion law. All these encountered the strongest kind of oppo- 
sition from the leading corporations, from the railroads and 
the corporations peculiarly affected by the other two laws. 
Two of the measures failed of passage in one Congress, though 
recommended by the President, but in the next Congress 
they were passed after a hard fight, by the full support of the 
Republican majorities. 

Mr. Roosevelt recommended the Eederal restriction of the 
issue of stocks and bonds on interstate railways for the pur- 
pose of preventing future overissue; but this was not taken 
up at the last session of Congress, to which the recommenda- 
tion was made. It is, however, a part of the pledge of the 
Republican platform that such a measure will be passed, ami 
there is no reason to doubt that the Republican majorities, 
with this direction from the party in convention assembled, 
will comply with its behest. 

The Republican platform also recommends legislation 
for the purpose of controlling corporations engaged in carry- 
ing on interstate commerce which are so large and powerful 
as to make it a temptation for them, unless restrained by law. 
to attempt illegal monopolies. The proposed plan is to 
subject the business of such corporations to the close super- 
vision of the Federal authorities, so as to make their regula- 
tion and a keeping of them within the law possible. All 
these provisions of the Republican platform are in accord 



46 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

with the recommendations of Mr. Roosevelt and Congress, 
and are a proper and emphatic compliance with his 
policies. 

The action of Mr. Roosevelt and the Republican party 
in this last Administration has called a halt in the evils and 
abuses which crept in during the enormous expansion of 
business during the last twelve years. The rate bill marked 
a moral revulsion and a purification of business methods in 
the matter of railway rebates and in the matter of complying 
with the anti-trust law which are notable in the economic 
and moral history of the country, and the most important 
steps now to be taken are those which shall make secure the 
progress made and clinch it, so that when prosperity is 
resumed the community shall not again be subjected to such 
evils and to the growth of enormous fortunes due to the 
perpetuation of such abuses. 

The real issue of the campaign, therefore, is whether the 
Republican party, because of the record of the administrations 
of Mr. McKinley and of Mr. Roosevelt in the last twelve 
years, with this most remarkable array of arduous tasks 
performed, shall be given a vote of confidence and be 
entrusted with the further work needed, or whether the 
country shall be turned over to a party which, under its 
present leadership, has been doing everything by turns and 
nothing long. It was a party which proposed to relieve the 
disaster from which the country suffered during the four 
years of the operation of the Gorman-Wilson Tariff Bill, 
not by a new tariff bill, but by adopting a monetary standard 
of value which would in effect have scaled the debts of all 
debtors and of the nation as well by 50 per cent., and which 
would have sullied the honor of the nation as one which 
repudiated its obligations and enabled its citizens to do the 
same. 

Again, in 1900, instead of recommending a change of 
tariff or suggesting any other of the remedies as paramount 
which it now proposes, it continued to insist on the adoption 
of free silver coinage, and attacked the policy of the Govern- 



AND STATE PAPERS 47 

ment in dealing with its problems which came from the 
Spanish War, as imperialistic. 

Again, in 1904, under a somewhat different leadership, 
but still claiming to be the same party, il made the paramount 
issue the executive usurpation of Mr. Roosevelt and 
attempted to avoid the fear that il might change the tariff 
by inviting attention, through the letter of its candidate, to 
the fact thai the Republican Senate would prevent any change 
in the tariff at all. Now that the Republican party has 
pledged itself to revise the tariff and reduce the excessive 
rates which have arisen by a change of conditions since 1S!><>, 
the Democratic party seeks to make the tariff one of the 
issues of the campaign, after twelve years of what may be 
described as a substantia] ignoring of the issue. 

The Democratic party, through its present leader. Mr. 
Bryan, now claims to be the real successor of Mr. Roosevelt 
in the purpose and policy to eliminate from our economic 
system illegal monopolies and railroad rebates, and unlaw- 
ful discriminations and excessive rates. In other words, 
having introduced into the lasl three campaigns issues as of 
paramount importance of an entirely differenl character 
from the trust issue and the railroad issue, and after Mr. 
Roosevelt and the Republican parly have taken long strides 
toward the remedy of the evils \\ hich gave rise to these issues, 
Mr. Bryan and the Democratic parly step forward, and 
claim, with a courage which in a different cause might well 
command admiration, that they are the tine exponents of 
the Roosevelt policies, ami thai they only can he trusted to 
carry them out, and this in the face of the fact that their 
remedies ;i> proposed in their platform are exactly the reme- 
dies winch .Mr. Roosevelt, in his message in 1904 and ever 
since, has consistently pointed out are not the remedies which 
ought to he pursued. The two remedies which they make 
prominent are the remedy of putting every article of mer- 
chandise made and controlled by a trust upon the \'n'c list, 
a remedy which would totally destroy the industries depend- 
ing upon the manufacture of such an article, render the 



48 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

capital invested therein and the plant in which it is expended 
utterly worthless, destroy all the smaller competitors of 
the trust, greatly injure the prosperity of the country, and 
throw out of work millions of workingmen and working- 
women. 

The second remedy is the revision of the tariff — not on 
protection lines, but on the lines of a revenue tariff, or on 
free trade principles. This was attempted in a partial way 
in the Gorman- Wilson Bill, and resulted most disastrously 
to the business interests of the country. It means the intro- 
ducing of such a transition and change in the manufacturing 
business of this country as to close a very large part of the 
factories and productive enterprises, and even if theoretically, 
after the transition and change had been made, the rate of 
wages would be restored — an assumption I cannot admit 
— certainly, the transition and change would so halt the 
business of the country and involve such a paralysis while the 
change was being effected, that the losses and stagnation 
in business and the number of men thrown out of employ- 
ment can hardly be exaggerated. More than this, the 
Democratic party has so long been engaged in devising 
sophistical theories upon which to attract votes, rather than 
in the preparation of practical statutes by which to effect 
results, that the public may well pause and hesitate to entrust 
to it any serious, sober work that requires for its accomplish- 
ment a strong sense of responsibility to the business interests 
of the country, in the prosperity of which the comfort and 
well-being of all classes, farmers, wage-earners and business 
men alike, are inseparably involved. 

The issue in which laboring men are supposed to be 
particularly interested in this campaign is with respect to 
injunctions in industrial disputes. The Republican party 
proposes to meet the objection to the issuing of temporary 
restraining orders without notice in industrial disputes, which, 
though only in rare instances, have put at an improper disad- 
vantage men engaged in a lawful strike, by defining the best 
practice in the issuing of such injunctions in all cases by stat- 



AND STATE TAPERS 49 

ute, and limiting the operation of the injunction without 
notice to a very short period, within which a hearing must be 
had or the injunction cease to have effect. The Democratic 
platform recommends no action with respect to notice at 
all, adopts an enigmatical plank on injunctions in industrial 
disputes that has practically no meaning, but does recom- 
mend the introduction of a jury in all indirect contempt 
proceedings. This would seriously weaken the power of the 
court, not alone in industrial disputes, but in all cases both 
of temporary orders ami final judgments, and the Republican 
party is determined that the power of the courts shall be 
maintained. 

The other issue most closely affecting labor is that of 
the protective tariff and the proposition to change the system 
from a protective tariff to a revenue tariff, and drive out 
business industries that are now really dependent upon 
protection for their maintenance. This, as already said, 
would so affect the business of the country, so reduce the 
number of enterprises thai could be carried <>n in the tran- 
sition proposed as to throw out of employment millions of 
workingmen. The question which the laboring man has 
to answer is, whether the advantage to him and his fellows 
of a change in the judicial procedure as to injunctions and 
contempt is SO great as to outweigh the public injury arising 
from a weakening of the power of the courts and the disaster 
to the wage-earner and the business community which would 
follow the adoption of the other Democratic- economic 
proposals. 

I have omitted from this review the proposition of the 
Democratic party to give to the Philippines immediate 
independence, and to initiate a system of enforced guaranty 
of bank deposits. 1 have no space l<> elaborate either propo- 
sition, except |o say that the first is intended to, and if carried 
out will, defeat a plan of the Republican Administration to 
uplift an unfortunate people, to leach them the power of 
self-government, and to make greatly for the spread of 
Christian civilization in the Orient. The second is one of 



50 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

those sophistical financial propositions so dear to Mr. Bryan, 
plausible on its face, but utterly at variance with sound 
principle. It is supposed to prevent entirely any loss of 
deposits in all banks to the depositors, and thus to prevent 
panics. As a matter of fact, it will stimulate reckless and 
dishonest use of deposits in bank investments, it much 
reduces the motive for conservative and honest banking in a 
community, and it would not in the slightest degree prevent 
runs on banks during panics, for which it is supposed to be 
a panacea. It imposes upon the honest and conservative 
banker an obligation to answer for the default of his unscru- 
pulous or inexperienced fellow, without any means on his 
part of supervising the work of the person whose honest and 
careful conduct he insures. 

The country is just now slowly recovering from a financial 
depression and a panic which came to us in October and 
November of last year. It is different from all the other 
panics in our history, and there are many indications that 
all that is needed to bring back good conditions is the restora- 
tion of confidence on the part of the investing public. It is 
submitted that for twelve years Mr. Bryan has been uphold- 
ing financial and economic theories which Avere calculated 
to frighten all sound, conservative business men. His free 
silver and free trade doctrines, with a touch of "greenback- 
ism" in some of his proposals, his quickness to seize upon any 
remedy, however drastic and impossible, which would 
please the crowd, and the utter instability of his views on 
any subject of a financial or economic character, would make 
his election to the Presidency a menace to prosperity. The 
necessary capital would be withheld and we should probably 
have a continuation of the present depression for the coming 
four years. It is Mr. Bryan's record in the last twelve years 
that makes this a necessary result of his election. Mr. Bryan 
says that the argument of the lull dinner pail lias been worked 
overtime. The argument of the full dinner pail is just as 
apt and just as relevant to the present situation as it has 
been in previous campaigns. As it is, two things can be 



AND STATE PAPERS 51 

affirmed of the Democratic party under the leadership of 
Mr. Bryan: First, that all who have anything to invest 
distrust him because of his unstable and unsound economic 
and financial views; and second, that they are justified in 
their lack of confidence. For that reason, those who wish 
a restoration of prosperity in the country should vote against 
the Democratic ticket. 

These are the issues of (he campaign as I understand them. 
Mr. Bryan charges that the Republican party is controlled 
by the corporations through campaign contributions. The 
record of the present Administration is a complete refutation 
of that charge. The adoption of statutes which met bitter 
corporate opposition is utterly inconsistent with it, and his 
assumption that the use of money in a campaign election 
can control elections is a charge of venality against the 
American electorate that has no foundation in fact. 

Mr. Bryan says thai there i-< no hope of a genuine revision 
of the tariff, because lie sa\ s the Republican parly is depend- 
ent for its campaign contributions upon the beneficiaries of 
the excessive rates under the tariff, and therefore that the 
only possible hope of a reduction in tariff schedules is from 
the Democratic party. 1 wish to deny this with the utmost 
emphasis. It is doubtless true that business men interested 
in a restoration of prosperity will some of them contribute to 
Republican campaign funds. Campaign funds are 
necessary in order to pay the legitimate expenses of a cam- 
paign. Certainly the extent of the contributions from any 
source in this campaign is not enough to indicate such a 
pecuniary interest in the success of the Republican party as 
would exist if Mr. Bryan's charges were tine. Speaking for 
myself, as the temporary leader of the party, and as the ne\t 
President if the parly is successful in November, I wish 
to affirm that no effort of mine will be spared to make the 
revision of the tariff under Republican auspices and within 
the conservative protective lines as thorough and as impartial 
between the consumer and the manufacturing interests as 
possible. I believe that there are many schedules that ought 



52 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to be reduced. I believe that there are a few, and only a few, 
that ought to be raised, but on the whole the revision should 
be a revision downward and not a revision upward. I am 
convinced that the people of the country desire such a 
revision. I am convinced that their representatives coming 
back to Congress will be imbued with that sentiment, and 
that no successful obstruction can be placed in the way of 
such Congressional action. 

To restate the issue of the campaign, it is whether the 
administrations of William McKinley and Theodore Roose- 
velt, in their wonderful record of meeting new problems and 
solving them by things done and statutes passed, shall be 
endorsed by the people, and the progress made assured by 
proper legislation, or whether there shall be put in power a 
party the chief characteristic of which in the last twelve 
years has been that of hunting an issue and seeking a sophis- 
tical theory which would attract votes with but little regard 
for its practical operation, and with but a small sense of 
responsibility to the business and labor interests of the 
country. 



Ill 

INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

(.MARCH 4 1909) 

My Fellow Citizens: 

ANY one who has taken the oath I have just taken 
must feel a heavy weight of responsibility. If not, 
he has no conception of the powers and duties of the office 
upon which he is about to cuter, or he is lacking in a proper 
sense of the obligation which tin- oath imposes. 

The office of an inaugural address is to give a summary 
outline of the main policies of the new administration, so 
far as the) can be anticipated. 1 have had the honor to be 
one of the advisers of my distinguished predecessor, and. as 
such, to hold up his hands in the reforms he has initiated. I 
should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the dec- 
larations of the parly platform upon which 1 was elected 
to office, if I did not make the maintenance and enforce- 
ment of those reforms a most important feature of my admin- 
istration. They were directed to the suppression of the 
lawlessness and abuses of power of the greal combinations 
of capita] invested in railroads ami in industrial enterprises 
carrying on interstate commerce. The steps which my 
predecessor took and the legislation passed on his recom- 
mendation have accomplished much, have caused a gen- 
eral halt in the vicious policies which created popular alarm, 
and have broughl about in the business affected a much 
higher regard for existing law. 

To render the reforms lasting, however, and to secure 
at the same time freedom from alarm on the part of those 
pursuing proper and progressive business methods, further 
legislative and executive' action is needed. Relief of the 

53 



54 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

railroads from certain restrictions of the anti-trust law have 
been urged by my predecessor and will be urged by me. 
On the other hand, the administration is pledged to legisla- 
tion looking to a proper federal supervision and restriction 
to prevent excessive issues of bonds and stocks by com- 
panies owning and operating interstate-commerce railroads. 
Then, too, a reorganization of the Department of Jus- 
tice, of the Bureau of Corporations in the Department of 
Commerce and Labor, and of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, looking to effective cooperation of these agencies 
is needed to secure a more rapid and certain enforcement 
of the laws affecting interstate railroads and industrial 
combinations. 

I hope to be able to submit at the first regular session of 
the incoming Congress, in December next, definite sugges- 
tions in respect to the needed amendments to the anti-trust 
and the interstate-commerce law and the changes required in 
the executive departments concerned in their enforcement. 

It is believed that with the changes to be recommended, 
American business can be assured of that measure of stability 
and certainty in respect to those things that may be done 
and those that are prohibited which is essential to the life 
and growth of all business. Such a plan must include the 
right of the people to avail themselves of those methods of 
combining capital and effort deemed necessary to reach the 
highest degree of economic efficiency, at the same time 
differentiating between combinations based upon legitimate 
economic reasons and those formed with the intent of crea- 
ting monopolies and artificially controlling prices. 

The work of formulating into practical shape such changes 
is creative work of the highest order, and requires all the 
deliberation possible in the interval. I believe that the 
amendments to be proposed are just as necessary in the 
protection of legitimate business as in the clinching of the 
reforms which properly bear the name of my predecessor. 

A matter of most pressing importance is the revision of 
the tariff. In accordance with the promises of the platform 



AND STATE PAPERS 55 

upon which I was elected, I shall call Congress into extra 
session to meet on the loth day of March, in order that con- 
sideration may be at once given to a bill revising the Dingley 
Act. This should secure an adequate revenue and adjust 
the duties in such a manner as to afford to labor and to all 
industries in this country, whether of the farm. mine, ol- 
factory, protection by tariff equal to the difference between 
the cost of production abroad and the cost of production here, 
and have a provision which shall put into force, upon exec- 
utive determination of certain facts, a higher or maximum 
tariff against those countries whose trade policy toward us 
equitably requires such discrimination. It is thought that 
there has been such a change in conditions since the enact- 
ment of the Dingley Act. drafted on a similarly protective 
principle, that the measure of the tariff above stated will 
permit the reduction of rates in certain schedules and will 
require the advancement of few, if any. 

The proposal to revise the tariff made in such an authori- 
tative way as to lead the business community to count upon 
it necessarily halts all those branches of business directly 
affected; and as these are mosl important, it disturbs the 
whole business of the country. It is imperatively necessary, 
therefore, that a tariff bill be drawn in good faith in accord- 
ance with promises made before the election by the party 
in power, and as promptly passed as due consideration will 
permit. It is not that the tariff is more important in the 
long run than the perfecting of the reforms in respect to 
anti-trust legislation and interstate-commerce regulation, 
but the need for action when the revision of the tariff has 
been determined upon is more immediate to avoid embar- 
rassment of business. To secure the needed speed in the 
passage of the tariff bill, it would seem wise to at tempt no 
other legislation at the extra session. I venture this as a 
suggestion only, for the course to be taken by Congress, upon 
the call of the Executive, is wholly within its discretion. 

In the making of a tariff bill the prime motive is taxation 
and the securing thereby of a revenue. Due largely to the 



56 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

business depression which followed the financial panic of 
1907, the revenue from customs and other sources has 
decreased to such an extent that the expenditures for the 
current fiscal year will exceed the receipts by $100,000,000. 
It is imperative that such a deficit shall not continue, and the 
framers of the tariff bill must, of course, have in mind the 
total revenues likely to be produced by it and so arrange 
the duties as to secure an adequate income. Should it be 
impossible to do so by import duties, new kinds of taxa- 
tion must be adopted, and among these I recommend a grad- 
uated inheritance tax as correct in principle and as certain 
and easy of collection. 

The obligation on the part of those responsible for the 
expenditures made to carry on the Government, to be as 
economical as possible, and to make the burden of taxa- 
tion as light as possible, is plain, and should be affirmed 
in every declaration of government policy. This is espe- 
cially true when we are face to face with a heavy deficit. 
But when the desire to win the popular approval leads to the 
cutting off of expenditures really needed to make the Gov- 
ernment effective and to enable it to accomplish its proper 
objects, the result is as much to be condemned as the waste 
of government funds in unnecessary expenditure. The 
scope of a modern government in what it can and ought to 
accomplish for its people has been widened far beyond the 
principles laid down by the old "laisser-faire" school of poli- 
tical writers, and this widening has met popular approval. 

In the Department of Agriculture the use of scientific 
experiments on a large scale and the spread of information 
derived from them for the improvement of general agri- 
culture must go on. 

The importance of supervising business of great railways 
and industrial combinations and the necessary investiga- 
tion and prosecution of unlawful business methods are 
another necessary tax upon Government which did not 
exist half a century ago. 

The putting into force of laws which shall secure the con- 



AND STATE PAPERS 57 

servation of our resources, so far as they may be within the 
jurisdiction of the Federal Government, including the most 
important work of saving and restoring our forests and the 
great improvement of waterways, are all proper govern- 
ment functions which must involve large expenditure if 
properly performed. While some of them, like the reclama- 
tion of arid lands, are made to pay for themselves, others 
are of such an indirect benefit that this can not be expected 
of them. A permanent improvement, like the Panama 
Canal, should be treated as a distinct enterprise, and should 
be paid for by the proceeds of bonds, the issue of which will 
distribute its cost between the present and future generations 
in accordance with the benefits derived. It may well be 
submitted to the serious consideration of Congress whether 
the deepening and control of the channel of a great river 
system, like that of the Ohio or of the Mississippi, when 
definite and practical plans for the enterprise have been 
approved and determined upon, should not be provided 
for in the same way. 

Then, too, there are expenditures of Government abso- 
lutely necessary if our country is to maintain its proper place 
among the nations of the world, and is to exercise its proper 
influence in defense of its own trade interests in the main- 
tenance of traditional American policy against the coloniza- 
tion of European monarchies in this hemisphere, and in the 
promotion of peace and international morality. I refer 
to the cost of maintaining a proper army, a proper navy, 
and suitable fortifications upon the mainland of the United 
States and in its dependencies. 

We should have an army so organized and so officered 
as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with 
the national militia and under the provisions of a proper 
national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force suffi- 
cient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to 
furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the 
maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears 
the name of President Monroe. 



58 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Our fortifications are yet in a state of only partial complete- 
ness, and the number of men to man them is insufficient. 
In a few years, however, the usual annual appropriations 
for our coast defenses, both on the mainland and in the 
dependencies, will make them sufficient to resist all direct 
attack, and by that time we may hope that the men to man 
them will be provided as a necessary adjunct. The dis- 
tance of our shores from Europe and Asia of course reduces 
the necessity for maintaining under arms a great army, but 
it does not take away the requirement of mere prudence — 
that we should have an army sufficiently large and so con- 
stituted as to form a nucleus out of which a suitable force 
can quickly grow. 

What has been said of the army may be affirmed in even 
a more emphatic way of the navy. A modern navy can not 
be improvised. It must be built and in existence when the 
emergency arises which calls for its use and operation. My 
distinguished predecessor has in many speeches and mes- 
sages set out with great force and striking language the neces- 
sity for maintaining a strong navy commensurate with 
the coast line, the governmental resources, and the foreign 
trade of our Nation; and I wish to reiterate all the reasons 
which he has presented in favor of the policy of main- 
taining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace 
with other nations and the best means of securing respect 
for the assertion of our rights, the defense of our interests, 
and the exercise of our influence in international matters. 

Our international policy is always to promote peace. We 
shall enter into any war with a full consciousness of the 
awful consequences that it always entails, whether success- 
ful or not, and we, of course, shall make every effort con- 
sistent with national honor and the highest national inter- 
est to avoid a resort to arms. We favor every instrumen- 
tality, like that of The Hague Tribunal and arbitration 
treaties made with a view to its use in all international con- 
troversies, in order to maintain peace and to avoid war. 
But we should be blind to existing conditions and should 



AND STATE PAPERS 59 

allow ourselves to become foolish idealists it' we did not 
realize that with all the nations of the world armed and pre- 
pared for war, we must be ourselves in a similar condition, 
in order to prevent other nations from taking advantage of 
us and of our inability to defend our interests and assert 
our rights with a strong hand. 

In the international controversies that are likely to arise 
in the Orient growing out of the question of the open door 
and other issues the United Stales can maintain 1km- inter- 
ests intact, and can secure respect for her just demands. 
She will not be aide to do so, however, if it is understood 
that die never intends to hack up her assertion of right and 
her defense of her interest by anything but mere verbal 
protest and diplomatic note, for these reasons the expenses 
of the army and navy and of coast defenses should always 
he considered as something which the Government must 
pay for, and they should not he cut oil* through mere con- 
sideration of economy. Our Government is able to afford 
a suitable army and a suitable navy. It may maintain them 
without the slightest danger to the Republic or the cause of 
free institutions, and fear of additional taxation ought not to 
change a proper policy in this regard. 

Tin- policy of the United Slates in the Spanish war and 
since has given it a position of influence among the nations 
that it never had before, and should l>e constantly excited to 
securing to its bona fide citizens, whether native or natural- 
i/.cd. respect for them as such in foreign countries. We 
should make every effort to prevent humiliating and de- 
grading prohibition against any of our citizens wishing tem- 
porarily to sojourn in foreign countries because of race or 
religion. 

The admission of Asiatic immigrants who cannot be 
amalgamated with our population has been made the sub- 
ject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes 
or of strict administrative regulation secured by diplo- 
matic negotiation. 1 .sincerely hope that we may con- 
tinue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immi- 



60 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

gration without unnecessary friction and by mutual conces- 
sions between self-respecting governments. Meantime we 
must take every precaution to prevent, or failing that, 
to punish, outbursts of race feeling among our people against 
foreigners of whatever nationality who have by our grant 
a treaty right to pursue lawful business here, and to be pro- 
tected against lawless assault or injury. 

This leads me to point out a serious defect in the present 
federal jurisdiction, which ought to be remedied at once. 
Having assured to other countries by treaty the protection 
of our laws for such of their subjects or citizens as we per- 
mit to come within our jurisdiction, we now leave to a 
State or a city, not under the control of the Federal Govern- 
ment, the duty of performing our international obligations 
in this respect. By proper legislation we may, and ought 
to, place in the hands of the Federal Executive the means 
of enforcing the treaty rights of such aliens in the courts 
of the Federal Government. It puts our Government in a 
pusillanimous position to make definite engagements to 
protect aliens and then to excuse the failure to perform 
those engagements by an explanation that the duty to keep 
them is in States or cities not within our control. If we 
would promise we must put ourselves in a position to per- 
form our promise. We can not permit the possible failure 
of justice, due to local prejudice, in any State or municipal 
government to expose us to the risk of a war which might 
be avoided if federal jurisdiction was asserted by suitable 
legislation by Congress and carried out by proper proceed- 
ings instituted by the Executive in the courts of the National 
Government. 

One of the reforms to be carried out during the incom- 
ing administration is a change of our monetary and bank- 
ing laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of 
currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations 
of law from operating to increase the embarrassments 
of a financial panic. The monetary commission, lately 
appointed, is giving full consideration to existing conditions 



AND STATE PAPERS 61 

and to all proposed remedies, and will doubtless suggest one 
that will meet the requirements of business and of public 
interest. 

We may hope that the report will embody neither the nar- 
row view of those who believe that the sole purpose of the 
new system should be to secure a large return on banking 
capital or of those who would have greater expansion of cur- 
rency with little regard to provisions for its immediate redemp- 
tion or ultimate security. There is no subject of economic 
discussion so intricate and so likely to evoke differing views 
and dogmatic statements as this one. The commission, in 
studying the general influence of currency on business and 
of business on currency, have wisely extended their investi- 
gations in European banking and monetary methods. The 
information that they have derived from such experts as 
they have found abroad will undoubtedly be found helpful 
in the solution of the difficult problem they have in hand. 

The incoming Congress should promptly fulfil the prom- 
ise of the Republican platform and pass a proper postal- 
savings bank bill. It will not be unwise or excessive pater- 
nalism. The promise to repay by the Government will 
furnish an inducement to savings deposits which private 
enterprise can not supply ami at such a low rate of inter- 
est as not to withdraw custom from existing banks. It will 
substantially increase the funds available for investment as 
capital in useful enterprises. It will furnish the absolute 
security which makes the proposed scheme of government 
guaranty of deposits so alluring, without its pernicious 
results. 

I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, 
as it should be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of 
encouraging it in every way feasible. The possibility of 
increasing this trade in the Orient, in the Philippines, and 
in South America is known to every one who has given the 
matter attention. The direct effect of free trade between 
this country and the Philippines will be marked upon our 
sale of cottons, agricultural machinery, and other manu- 



G2 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

factures. The necessity for the establishment of direct lines 
of steamers between North and South America has been 
brought to the attention of Congress by my predecessor 
and by Mr. Root before and after his noteworthy visit 
to that continent, and I sincerely hope that Congress may be 
induced to see the wisdom of a tentative effort to establish 
such lines by the use of mail subsidies. 

The importance which the Departments of Agriculture 
and of Commerce and Labor may play in ridding the mar- 
kets of Europe of prohibitions and discriminations against 
the importation of our products is fully understood, and it 
is hoped that the use of the maximum and minimum feature of 
our tariff law to be soon passed will be effective to remove 
many of those restrictions. 

The Panama Canal will have a most important bearing 
upon the trade between the eastern and the far western 
sections of our country, and will greatly increase the facil- 
ities for transportation between the eastern and the wes- 
tern seaboard, and may possibly revolutionize the trans- 
continental rates with respect to bulky merchandise. It 
will also have a most beneficial effect to increase the trade 
between the eastern seaboard of the United States and the 
western coast of South America, and, indeed, with some 
of the important ports on the east coast of South America 
reached by rail from the west coast. 

The work on the canal is making most satisfactory pro- 
gress. The type of the canal as a lock canal was fixed by 
Congress after a full consideration of the conflicting reports 
of the majority and minority of the consulting board, and 
after the recommendation of the War Department and the 
Executive upon those reports. Recent suggestion that some- 
thing had occurred on the Isthmus to make the lock type 
of the canal less feasible than it was supposed to be when 
the reports were made and the policy determined on, led to 
a visit to the Isthmus of a board of competent engineers 
to examine the Gatun dam and locks, which are the key of 
the lock type. The report of the board shows that nothing 



AND STATE PAPERS 63 

has occurred in the nature of newly revealed evidence which 
should change the views once formed in the original dis- 
cussion. The construction will go on under a most effective 
organization controlled by Colonel Goethals and his fellow 
army engineers associated with him, and will certainly be 
completed early in the next administration, if not before. 

Some type of canal must be constructed. The lock type 
has hem selected. We are all in favor of having it built 
as promptly as possible. We musl nol now, therefore, keep 
up a fire in the rear of the agents whom we have authorized 
to do our work on the [sthmus. We must hold up their 
hands, and speaking for the incoming administration I wish 
to say that I propose to devote all the energy possible and 
under my control to pushing this work on the plans which 
have been adopted, and to stand behind the nun who are 
doing faithful, hard work to bring aboul the early comple- 
tion of this, the greatesl constructive enterprise of modern 

times. 

The governments of our dependencies in Porto Rico and 
the Philippines are progressing as favorably as could be 
desired. The prosperity of Porto Rico continues unabated. 
The business conditions in the Philippines are noi all thai we 
could wish them to be, bul with the passage of the new tariff 
bill permitting free trade between the United Stale-, and the 
archipelago, with such limitation- in sugar and tobacco as 
shall prevent injury to domestic interests on those products, 
we can count on an improvement in business conditions in 
the Philippines and the development of a mutually profit- 
able trade between this country and the islands. Meantime 
our Government in each dependency is upholding the tradi- 
tions of civil liberty and increasing popular control which 
might be expected under American auspices. The work 
which we are doing there redounds to our credit as a Nation. 

1 look forward with hope to increasing the already good 
feeling between the South and the other sections of the 
country. My chief purpose i> not to effeel a change in the 
electoral vote of the Southern States. That is a secondary 



64 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

consideration. What I look forward to is an increase in the 
tolerance of political views of all kinds and their advocacy 
throughout the South, and the existence of a respectable 
political opposition in every State; even more than this, to 
an increased feeling on the part of all the people in the South 
that this Government is their Government, and that its 
officers in their States are their officers. 

The consideration of this question can not, however, be 
complete and full without reference to the Negro race, its 
progress and its present condition. The thirteenth amend- 
ment secured them freedom; the fourteenth amendment, due 
process of law, protection of property, and the pursuit of 
happiness; and the fifteenth amendment attempted to secure 
the Negro against any deprivation of the privilege to vote 
because he was a Negro. The thirteenth and fourteenth 
amendments have been generally enforced and have secured 
the objects for which they were intended. While the fif- 
teenth amendment has not been generally observed in the 
past, it ought to be observed, and the tendency of southern 
legislation to-day is toward the enactment of electoral quali- 
fications which shall square with that amendment. Of 
course, the mere adoption of a constitutional law is only 
one step in the right direction. It must be fairly and justly 
enforced as well. In time both will come. Hence it is clear 
to all that the domination of an ignorant, irresponsible ele- 
ment can be prevented by constitutional laws which shall 
exclude from voting both Negroes and whites not having 
education or other qualifications thought to be necessary 
for a proper electorate. The danger of the control of an 
ignorant electorate has therefore passed. With this change, 
the interest which many of the southern white citizens take 
in the welfare of the Negroes has increased. The colored 
men must base their hope on the results of their own indus- 
try, self-restraint, thrift, and business success, as well as 
upon the aid and comfort and sympathy which they may 
receive from their white neighbors of the South. 

There was a time when Northerners who sympathized with 



AND STATE PAPERS 65 

the Negro in his necessary struggle for better conditions 
sought to give to him the suffrage as a protection and to 
enforce its exercise against the prevailing sentiment of the 
South. The movement proved to be a failure. What 
remains is the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution and 
the right to have statutes of Stales specifying qualifications 
for electors subjected to the test of compliance with that 
amendment. This is a great protection to the Negro. It 
never will he repealed, and it never ought to be repealed. If 
it had not passed, it might be difficult now to adopt it; hut 
with it in our fundamental law, the policy of Southern legis- 
lation must and will lend to obey it. and so long as the statutes 
of the States meet the test of this amendment and are not 
otherwise in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the 
United Stales it is not the disposition or within the province 
of the Federal Government to interfere with the regulation 
by Southern States of their domestic affairs. 'There is in the 
South a stronger feeling than ever among the intelligent, 
well-to-do. and influential element in favor of the indus- 
trial education of the Negro and the encouragement of the 
race to make themselves useful members of the community. 
Tin- progress which the Negro has made in the last fifty 
years, from slavery, when its statistics are revealed, is mar- 
vellous, and it furnishes everj reason to hope that in the next 
twenty-five years a still greater improvement in his con- 
dition as a productive member of society, on the farm, and in 
the shop, and in other occupations may come. 

The Negroes are now Americans. Their ancestors came 
here years ago against their will, and this is their only country 
and their only (lag. They have shown themselves anxious 
to live for it and to die for it. Encountering the race feeling 
against them, subjected at limes to cruel injustice growing 
out of it, they may well have our profound sympathy and aid 
in the struggle they arc making. We are charged with the 
sacred duly of making their path as smooth and easy as we 
can. Any recognition of their distinguished men, any 
appointment to office from among their number, is properly 



66 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

taken as an encouragement and an appreciation of their 
progress, and this just policy should be pursued when suit- 
able occasion offers. 

But it may well admit of doubt whether, in the case of any 
race, an appointment of one of their number to a local office 
in a community in which the race feeling is so widespread and 
acute as to interfere with the ease and facility with which 
the local government business can be done by the appointee 
is of sufficient benefit by way of encouragement to the race 
to outweigh the recurrence and increase of race feeling which 
such an appointment is likely to engender. Therefore, the 
Executive, in recognizing the Negro race by appointments, 
must exercise a careful discretion not thereby to do it more 
harm than good. On the other hand, we must be careful not 
to encourage the mere pretense of race feeling manufactured 
in the interest of individual political ambition. 

Personally, I have not the slightest race prejudice or feel- 
ing, and recognition of its existence only awakens in my 
heart a deeper sympathy for those who have to bear it or 
suffer from it, and I question the wisdom of a policy which 
is likely to increase it. Meantime, if nothing is done to 
prevent it, a better feeling between the Negroes and the 
whites in the South will continue to grow, and more and 
more of the white people will come to realize that the future 
of the South is to be much benefited by the industrial and 
intellectual progress of the Negro. The exercise of political 
franchises by those of his race who are intelligent and well-to- 
do will be acquiesced in, and the right to vote will be with- 
held only from the ignorant and irresponsible of both races. 
There is one other matter to which I shall refer. It was 
made the subject of great controversy during the election 
and calls for at least a passing reference now. My distin- 
guished predecessor has given much attention to the cause 
of labor, with whose struggle for better things he has shown 
the sincerest sympathy. At his instance Congress has passed 
the bill fixing the liability of interstate carriers to their 
employees for injury sustained in the course of employment, 



AND STATE PAPERS 67 

abolishing the rule of fellow servant and the common-law 
rule as to contributory negligence, and substituting therefor 
the so-called rule of "comparative negligence." It has 
also passed a law fixing the compensation of government 
employees for injuries sustained in the employ of the Gov- 
ernment. It has also passed a model child-labor law for 
the District of Columbia. In previous administrations an 
arbitration law for interstate-commerce railroads and their 
employees, and laws for the application of safety devices 
to save the lives and limbs of employees of interstate rail- 
roads had been passed. Additional legislation of this kind 
was passed by the outgoing Congress. 

I wish to say that, in so far a- 1 can, I hope to promote 
the enactment of further legislation of this character. 1 am 
strongly convinced that the Government should make itself 
as responsible to employees injured in its employ as an 
interstate-railway corporation is made responsible by federal 
law to its employees; and I shall be glad, whenever any addi- 
tional reasonable safely device can be invented to reduce 
the loss of life and limb among railway employees, to urge 
Congress to require it> adoption by interstate railways. 

Another labor question has arisen which has awakened 
the mosl excited discussion. That is in respect to the power 
of the federal courts to issue injunctions in industrial dis- 
putes. As to that, my convictions are fixed. Take away 
from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to 
issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a 
privileged class among the laborers and save the lawless 
among their number from a mosl needful remedy available 
to all men for the protection of their business againsl unlaw- 
ful invasion. The proposition thai bu>ineNS is not a prop- 
erty or pecuniary right which can be protected by equita- 
ble injunction is utterly without foundation in precedent or 
reason. The proposition is usually linked with one to make 
the secondary boycott lawful. Such a proposition is at vari- 
ance with (he American instinct, and will find no support, 
in my judgment, when submitted to the American people. 



68 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and 
ought not to be made legitimate. 

The issue of a temporary restraining order without notice 
has in several instances been abused by its inconsiderate 
exercise, and to remedy this, the platform upon which I was 
elected recommends the formulation in a statute of the con- 
ditions under which such a temporary restraining order 
ought to issue. A statute can and ought to be framed to 
embody the best modern practice, and can bring the sub- 
ject so closely to the attention of the court as to make abuses 
of the process unlikely in the future. The American people, 
if I understand them, insist that the authority of the courts 
shall be sustained, and are opposed to any change in the 
procedure by which the powers of a court may be weak- 
ened and the fearless and effective administration of justice 
be interfered with. 

Having thus reviewed the questions likely to recur during 
my administration, and having expressed in a summary way 
the position which I expect to take in recommendations to 
Congress and in my conduct as an Executive, I invoke the 
considerate sympathy and support of my fellow citizens and 
the aid of Almighty God in the discharge of my responsible 
duties. 



IV 

MESSAGE CONVENING CONGRESS 
IN EXTRA SESSION 

(.MARCH 16, 1909) 

To tJw Senate and House of Representatives: 

I HAVE convened the Congress in this extra session in 
order to enable it to give immediate consideration to 
the revision of the Dingley Tariff Act. Conditions affecting 
production, manufacture, and business generally, have so 
changed in the last twelve years as to require a readjust- 
ment and revision of the import duties imposed by that Act. 
More than this, the present tariff act, with the other sources 
of Government revenue, does not furnish income enough to 
pay the authorized expenditures. By July 1st next the 
excess of expenses over receipts for the current fiscal year 
will equal $100,000,000. 

The successful party in the late election is pledged to a 
revision of the tariff. The country, and the business com- 
munity especially, expect it. The prospect of a change in 
the rates of import duties always causes a suspension or 
halt in business because of the uncertainty as to the changes 
to be made, and their effect. It is, therefore, of the highest 
importance that the new bill should be agreed upon and 
passed with as much speed as possible consistent with its 
due and thorough consideration. For these reasons, I have 
deemed the present to be an extraordinary occasion, within 
the meaning of the Constitution, justifying and requiring 
the calling >>\' an extra session. 

In my inaugural address I stated in a summary way the 
principles upon which, in my judgment, the revision of the 
tariff should proceed, and indicated at least one new source 

69 



70 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of revenue that might be properly resorted to in order to 
avoid a future deficit. It is not necessary for me to repeat 
what I then said. 

I venture to suggest that the vital business interests of the 
country require that the attention of the Congress in this 
session be chiefly devoted to the consideration of the new 
tariff bill, and that the less time given to other subjects of 
legislation in this session, the better for the country. 



V 

grover Cleveland 

(ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE CLEVELAND 

MEMORIAL EXERCISES, HELD IN CARNEGIE HALL, 

NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 18, 1909) 

GROVER CLEVELAND was as completely American 
in his character as Lincoln. Without a college edu- 
cation, lie prepared himself for the Bar. His life was con- 
fined to western New York. His vision of governmenl and 
of society was nol widened by foreign travel. He was a 
pure producl of the village and town life of the Middle 
States, affected by New England ancestry and the atmos- 
phere of a clergyman's home. His chief characteristics 
wen- simplicity and directness of thought, sturdy honesty, 
courage of his convictions and plainness of speech, with a 
sense <>t' public duly thai has been exceeded by no states- 
man within my knowledge. It was so strong in him thai he 
rarely wrote anything, whether in the form of a private or 
public communication, that the obligation of ;ill men to 
observe the public interesl was nol his chief theme. 

His career was a most remarkable one. By his adminis- 
tration of the affairs of his city as its Mayor, he showed his 
power of resistence to, and of overcoming, the influences 
thai made for corruption and negligence in city govern- 
ment, both in his own parly and in the party of his opponents. 
His reputation in this regard spread over his native state of 
New York at a time when such an altitude as his seemed 
exceptional, and his standing before the cummunity became 
a political asset for the Democratic party, that even those 
who had hnt little sympathy with his principles were glad to 
seize upon as a means of getting into power. Accordingly, 

71 



72 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

he was nominated for the Governorship, and was elected 
by the votes not only of his own party but of hundreds of 
thousands of the Republican party. The discharge of his 
duties as Governor confirmed and strengthened the reputa- 
tion that he had acquired as a Mayor. Before he had ceased 
his office as Mayor, he had been elected Governor. Before 
he had ceased his office as Governor, he had been elected 
President of the United States. 

The presidential campaign of 1884 degenerated into 
one of slander, scandal and abuse, but Mr. Cleveland came 
through it, retaining the confidence of the American people 
in his courage and honesty and his single purpose to better 
the public service. 

Mr. Cleveland was a Democrat. He was a partisan. He 
believed in parties, as all men must who understand the 
machinery essential to the success and efficiency of popular 
government. His impulses were all toward the merit sys- 
tem of appointments in the public service, and against the 
spoils system; but he had a practical, common-sense view 
of the problems before him. He dealt with the instruments 
which he had, and he not infrequently was obliged, in order 
to accomplish greater objects, to yield to the demands of 
those who had no ideals, and who were impatient of 
anything but the use of government offices as a purely 
political reward. Every time that opportunity offered, how- 
ever, and there was not some greater object in immediate 
view, he strengthened and assisted the movement toward 
the merit system. 

Mr. Cleveland's political career was so short that he had 
a great advantage over the prominent men of his party whose 
records reached back into, and were governed by, the bitter 
quarrels of the Civil War. As a political quantity, his his- 
tory began during the corruption and demoralization in the 
Republican party which were a necessary result of continued 
power during the war and the decade succeeding it. He 
represented in a sense a new Democracy, about which all 
the older elements rallied, both those strongly in sympathy 



AND STATE TAPERS 73 

with his reform views, as well as those elements without 
such sympathy, who were anxious to secure party power. 

At the end of his first term, he was renominated, but 
was beaten by General Harrison in a close vote. By that 
time, the politicians of the old school in the Democratic 
party had drawn away from him, ami had no desire to con- 
tinue his leadership. But so strong a hold had he upon the 
affections and confidence of the rank and file of his parly, 
and so sure were they that he was stronger than the party 
in an electoral contest, thai he was nominated in the National 
Convention against the desires of nn>>t of the state organiza- 
tion leaders; and in the election which followed, he led his 
parly to the greatest victory in its history. 

In this campaign Mr. Cleveland stood for an affirmative 
idea, that of a reduction of the tariff, so as to make it a 
tariff for revenue. He attacked the protective theory 
and system. He stood for something aggressive and affirm- 
ative. It was in accordance with the ancient traditions of 
the party. 

I do not need to enter into a discussion of the merits of the 
issue, but comment on it only as illustrating Mr. Cleveland's 
character. lie was positive, lie was affirmative. He was 
courageous. He believed in parties. He believed in (tarty 
policies, and he believed in consistency in regard to them, 
and he did not believe in trimming down a policy to catch Un- 
votes of those who really did not agree with it. 

The first time Mr. Cleveland was in power he was opposed 
by a Republican Senate. This gave little opportunity for 
any radical change by legislation in the previous policies of 
Republican administrations, but it did offer an opportunity 
for Mr. ( 'leveland to point out to the country the fact thai our 
government is a government of three distinct branches, the 
Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial, and that the 
Executive has a sphere which the Legislative branch has no 
right to invade. 

We hear much in these days of the usurpation of the 
Legislative jurisdiction by the Executive branch. As long 



74 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

as the Legislative branch has the power of the purse, the 
danger of Executive usurpation is imaginative. The real 
danger arises from the disposition of the Legislative branch 
to assume that it has the omnipotence of Parliament and 
may completely control the discretion conferred upon the 
Executive by the Constitution. The country is under obliga- 
tion to Mr. Cleveland for having pointed out in his contro- 
versy with the Republican Senate, some of the limitations 
that there are in the Constitution upon attempted Legisla- 
tive action to restrict Executive discretion. In the end Mr. 
Cleveland won in his controversy with the Senate. Whether 
he might have done so, had both the House and the Senate 
been against him, is a matter of doubt. The history of 
Andrew Johnson's controversy with Congress shows how far 
a partisan legislature may be induced to go in an uncon- 
stitutional attempt to cut down Executive power. The limit 
of Legislative restriction upon Executive action is a difficult 
line to define. Any one who attempts to do more than to pass 
on single instances as they arise may find himself in great 
difficulty, but as such instances are considered and decided, 
the limits are gradually being defined. We owe to Mr. 
Cleveland and his courage in dealing with the Senate of the 
United States, the establishment of some useful precedents. 
In Mr. Cleveland's second term, there was a large major- 
ity of his party in the House and a working majority in the 
Senate, so that the whole responsibility of Government fell 
upon the Democracy, with Mr. Cleveland at its head. The 
significance of his second administration centers about three 
issues. The first was the tariff; the second, free silver, and 
the third, the suppression of lawlessness directed against 
Federal authority by use of the process of Federal courts 
and by Federal troops. The same influences in his own 
party which had sought to defeat Mr. Cleveland for nomina- 
tion in his third canvass, he found intrenched in the Senate 
so strongly as to be able to defeat the declared policy of his 
party in favor of a revenue tariff, and he refused to sign the 
Gorman-Wilson Bill but allowed it to become a law after 



AND STATE PAPERS 75 

denouncing it as the result of perfidy and dishonor. This 
was doubtless the greatest disappointment of his political 
life, for it destroyed the opportunity to test the wisdom of 
the party policy advocated by him and declared in the party 
platform, while the business depression which existed before 
and after its passage furnished ammunition to his political 
opponents who did not hesitate to argue that the prospect 
of a revenue tariff on the one hand and the passage of the 
actual Gorman- Wilson Bill on the other had paralyzed the 
industries of the country. Whatever one's views upon the 
tariff, whether he be a protectionist or a free-trader, he 
cannot but have the deepesl sympathy with Mr. Cleveland 
in his deej) indignation at the party disloyalty which defeated 
the Wilson Hill as it passed the House, and gave us the non- 
descript bill which became the law. 

Hut there was rising in the Democratic party at the time, 
especially in the western and southern parts of the country, 
a desire for economic remedy which should cure everything 
in our business and body politic. This was the movement 
in favor of the ivcr coinage of silver. The Republican 
party and some of its leaders in the wot and south had not 
been free from weakness in this respect, and the law for the 
monthly purchases of $2,000,000 of silver hung like a stone 
around the neck of the country. Mr. Cleveland used all the 
authority that he could command a> the Executive to bring 
about a repeal of this law, and he finally succeeded. 'I 'he 
deep gratitude of the country is due to him for this result. 
Without it disaster would have come. Without it the credit 
of the country could not have been sustained ami there would 
have been a blot on our financial escutcheon. But when 
Mr. Cleveland succeeded in securing the repeal of the 
Sherman Act, it seemed as if his control over the party with 
respect to the monetary issue had been exhausted. His 
party became hopelessly divided, and the majority of it 
declared in favor of the free coinage of silver, a policy 
which we know to-day, and which we ought to have known 
then, was nothing but a policy of repudiation. It was a 



76 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

policy completely contrary to the ancient and traditional 
views of the old Democratic party. It was a departure 
from the plainest principles of honesty to those who foresaw 
its effect in the repudiation and scaling down of public and 
private debts by legislative fiat. It was a policy which has 
taken away from the Democratic party the confidence of the 
business community, whether previously Democratic or 
Republican. It presented a moral issue so sharp, so clear, 
as completely to destroy party fealty and party attach- 
ments. It took away from the Democratic party that 
strong, conservative element of which Mr. Cleveland was 
the leader, and it made it for the time a party which seemed 
to threaten the foundation of honest business and of honest 
government. It seemed to make its campaign in 1896 and 
1900, an assault upon that which was best in our civiliza- 
tion. In my judgment, the safety of the Republic was 
threatened by the breaking up of the Democratic party 
into its radical and conservative elements. 

In the campaigns of Mr. Blaine and Mr. Cleveland and 
of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Harrison, every one felt, however 
deep his partisan desires, that the institutions of the country, 
as established by the fathers, would be preserved under the 
leadership of either party, but in the campaign of 1896, 
and the one which followed it, there was certainly no such 
confidence on the part of the men who voted for Mr. Mc- 
Kinley. It seemed to be an issue in which the permanence 
of our institutions was involved. 

In this light, it was an unfortunate day for the Republic 
when the leadership of the Democracy passed from Mr. 
Cleveland. 

The patriotic spirit which moved those under Mr. Cleve- 
land's leadership to break from party ties and save the 
country from repudiation, entitled them and him to our 
everlasting gratitude. 

Another great debt which the country owes to Mr. Cleve- 
land is the assertion, made through him as its Chief Execu- 
tive, of the power of the Federal Government directly to 



AND STATE PAPERS 77 

defend the Federal jurisdiction through the process of 
Federal courts and by Federal troops, against the lawless 
invasion of a mob. Mr. Cleveland was a Democrat and of 
course respected the traditional construction of the Con- 
stitution by that party; but no fear of apparent inconsistency 
prevented him from asserting the full Federal power to main- 
tain its authority to suppress lawlessness when directed 
against Federal right and Federal jurisdiction; and so he insti- 
tuted proceedings in the Federal courts to restrain the Debs' 
boycott of the country, the tying up of interstate commerce, 
and the interference with the mails, and he sent the troops 
under General Miles to Chicago to make his assertion of the 
power effective. It cost him the support of the thoughtless 
whose sympathy against the unjust aggressions of corporate 
power and wealth make them wink at the lawless invasion of 
vested rights. But he succeeded in stopping what had 
really grown to the proportions of an insurrection. The 
highest tribunal created by the Constitution to fix the limits 
of State and National authority completely sustained his 
course. There were other issues in his administration; 
there were other controversies in which lie took part in his 
political life, but time permits me only to discuss those which 
I have referred to. 

Grover Cleveland earned the sincere gratitude of his coun- 
trymen and justified recurring memorial occasions like the 
one in which we are taking part. He was a great President, 
not because he was a great lawyer, not because he was a bril- 
liant orator, not because he was a statesman of profound 
learning, but because he was a patriot with the highest sense 
of public duty, because he was a statesman of clear percep- 
tions, of the utmost courage of his convictions, and of great 
plainness of speech; because he was a man of the highest 
character, a father and husband of the best type, and because 
throughout his political life he showed those rugged virtues 
of the public servant and citizen, the emulation of which 
by those who follow him will render progress of our political 
life toward better things a certainty. 



VI 

PROPOSED TARIFF-REVISION LAW OF 1909 
FOR THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 

(THE WHITE HOUSE, APRIL 14, 1909) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I TRANSMIT herewith a communication from the 
Secretary of War, inclosing one from the Chief of the 
Bureau of Insular Affairs, in which is transmitted a pro- 
posed tariff-revision law for the Philippine Islands. 

This measure revises the present Philippine tariff, 
simplifies it, and makes it conform as nearly as pos- 
sible to the regulations of the customs laws of the United 
States, especially with respect to packing and packages. 
The present Philippine regulations have been cumbersome 
and difficult for American merchants and exporters to 
comply with. Its purpose is to meet the new conditions 
that will arise under the section of the pending United 
States tariff bill which provides, with certain limita- 
tions, for free trade between the United States and the 
islands. It is drawn with a view to preserving to the 
islands as much customs revenue as possible, and to pro- 
tect in a reasonable measure those industries which now 
exist in the islands. 

The bill now transmitted has been drawn by a board of 
tariff experts, of which the insular collector of customs, 
Colonel George R. Colton, was the president. The board 
held a great many open meetings in Manila, and conferred 
fully with representatives of all business interests in the 
Philippine Islands. It is of great importance to the welfare 
of the islands that the bill should be passed at the same time 

78 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 79 

with the pending Payne Bill, with special reference to the 
provisions of which it was prepared. 

I respectfully recommend that this hill be enacted at the 
present session of Congress as one incidental to and required 
by the passage of the Payne Bill. 



VII 

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TAFT AT THE BAN- 
QUET GIVEN IN HIS HONOR BY THE BOARD 
OF TRADE AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
OF WASHINGTON, D. C, AT THE 
NEW WILLARD 

(MAY 8, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman and the Solid Men of Washington: 

I WISH to thank you from the bottom of my heart for 
the courtesy that you have extended to me this even- 
ing in this magnificent banquet, and in your coming here 
to take part in this occasion. I am proud of it, if it be 
the case, and I must believe it from the assurances given 
to-night, that this is the first time that a President of the 
United States has ever had the pleasure of meeting on such 
an occasion and under such circumstances, the business men 
of Washington. I hope for close intimacy; I hope that we 
may come together and we may discuss these things, because 
certainly we need it. I take the utmost personal pride 
in the City of Washington. It thrills my heart every day 
to look out of the back windows of the White House — 
for the short time I have been there — and whenever I get 
the opportunity, to see this beautiful city in which we are 
permitted to live — these avenues and streets constructed 
on a magnificent plan, looking forward for centuries; these 
trees planted with great foresight to make every part of 
Washington a park; these vistas into which always creeps 
unbidden that beautiful shaft that marks the memory of 
the founder of the city. 

I have not been here very long in the City of Washington, 

80 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 81 

as some men count it long. I was here two years between 
1890 and 1892; four years from 1904 to 1908 — but that is 
a little bit longer than Justice Stafford. I have been a 
tax-payer; I have invested some money in land in Wash- 
ington and have not seen a dollar come out of it; I have sent 
my children to the public schools; I have hung to straps in 
street cars, going both ways to the Capitol; I have bathed 
in the Potomac mud — in a bathtub; I have lunched at 
Harvey's on those steamed oysters, and I have been a fan 
with my friend "Sunny Jim" at the base-ball park and have 
had a love, and cultivated it with him, for tail-enders. And 
therefore, I claim that I have been through experiences that 
ought to give me some of the local atmosphere and some of 
the local feeling of Washington. And yet, with all that, 
gentlemen, as I look about here into these smiling faces, 
these somewhal rotund forms that give evidence of pros- 
perity, it is a little difficult for me to realize that it was about 
those "caitiffs" and those "slaves" that Mr. Justice Staf- 
ford spoke. 

In spite of my experience in Washington, I am a national- 
ist. This cii\ is ;1 home of the governmenl of a nation, and 
when men who were jusl as much imbued with the prin- 
ciples of civil liberty as any who have conic alter, Washington 
at the head, put into the Constitution the provisions with 
reference to the governmen t of the District of Columbia, 
they knew what they were doing, and spoke for a coming 
possible eighty millions of people, who should insist that the 
home of their government should be governed by their repre- 
sentatives; and that if there were in that eighty millions 
of people men who desired to come and share in the grandeur 
of that capital and live in a city of magnificent beauty as this 
was and enjoy all the privilege-, then they come with their 
eyes open as to the character of the government that they 
are to have, and they must know that they must depend 
not upon the principles ordinarily governing in popular 
government, but thai they must trust, in order to secure their 
liberty — to gel their guaranties — they must trust to the 



82 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

representatives of eighty millions of people selected under 
that Constitution. 

I want to say, with deference to this discussion, that if 
this meeting (or subsequent meetings) is to be devoted to 
securing an amendment to the Constitution, by which you 
are going to disturb the principle of two Senators from 
every State, and you are going to abolish the provision that 
was put in there ex industria by George Washington, you 
will not get ahead in the matter of better government in 
Washington by such meetings. I do not want to seem to 
be abrupt, but I believe it is possible by such meetings as 
this to arouse the interest of Congress and the Executive 
to the necessity of consulting the people of Washington, 
to let them act as Americans act when they don't have the 
right of suffrage — let them act by the right of petition ; and 
are they not exercising that right all the time ? Isn't it pos- 
sible to determine on the part of the committees of the House 
and the Senate what the attitude of the Washington citizens 
is ? Why, the government that we have to-day in Washington 
everybody admits is a good government. Has it not been 
brought about through the aid of those very committees in 
the House and Senate who you say know nothing about 
Washington, and who make their knowledge, or lack of 
knowledge, ridiculous by showing it ? We are all imperfect. 
We can not expect perfect government, but what we ought 
to do is to pursue practical methods, and not, I submit with 
deference to Justice Stafford, make it seem as if the people 
of Washington were suffering some great and tremendous 
load and sorrow, when as a matter of fact they are the envy 
of the citizens of other cities. 

Washington intended this to be a Federal city, and it is 
a Federal city, and it tingles down to the feet of every man, 
whether he comes from Washington State, or Los Angeles, 
or Texas, when he comes and walks these city streets and 
begins to feel that "this is my city; I own a part of this 
Capital, and I envy for the time being those who are able to 
spend their time here." I quite admit that there are defects 



AND STATE PAPERS 83 

in the system of government by which Congress is bound to 
look after the government of the District of Columbia. It 
could not be otherwise under such a system, but I submit 
to the judgment of history that the result vindicates the fore- 
sight of the fathers. 

Now, I am opposed to the franchise in the District: I 
am opposed, and not because I yield to any one in my sup- 
port and belief in the principles of self-government; but 
principles are applicable generally, and then, unless you 
make exceptions to the application of those principles, you 
will find that they will carry you to very illogical and absurd 
results. This was taken out of the application of the prin- 
ciple of self-government in the very Constitution that was 
intended to put that in force in every other pari of the country, 
and it was done because it was intended to have the represen- 
tatives of all the people in the country control this one city, 
and to prevent its being controlled by the parochial spiril 
that would necessarily govern men who did not look beyond 
the city to the grandeur of the nation, and this as the repre- 
sentative of that nation. 

I have gotten over being frightened by being told that I am 
forgetting the principles of the fathers. The principles of 
the fathers are maintained l>\ those who maintain them 
with reason, and according to the fitness of the thing, and 
not by those who are constantly shaking them before the 
mass of the voters w hen they have no application. 

Now, the question arises: What shall we do with the 
governmenl of Washington? Shall we have the present 
board of three; shall we have one or shall we have some 
other form? I confess I do not know. My predecessor 
has recommended a change of the present form so as to give 
the responsibility to one, with the view to visiting that one 
with the responsibility. On the other hand, it is said that 
three have worked well; that it gives more opportunity, pos- 
sibly, for counsel, and that it takes away the bureaucratic 
character of the government. As 1 have said. I have reached 
no conclusion as to what recommendation I shall make to 



84 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Congress on the subject. I fully concur with Justice Stafford 
in thinking that it would be most unwise to introduce into 
the District what I understand to be a bureaucratic form of 
government. That is right. A bureaucratic form of govern- 
ment is one which, as he very well described it, would make 
the War Department look after the streets; Dr. Wiley, pos- 
sibly, look after the health — the Agricultural Department 
through him — and the Treasury Department look after 
the finances. And so as to each branch of the government 
you should go to the head of that particular department in 
the general government. I think that would be a very 
burdensome, a very awkward, a very clumsy system of gov- 
ernment. I am strongly in favor of retaining the municipal 
form, so that everything which shall affect the city of Wash- 
ington shall be done under the chief executive of that city, 
and by that chief executive. In other words, I would give 
an entity to the city of Washington, or the District of Colum- 
bia, and take all of that entity out of the operation of the 
bureaus of the general government. That is what I under- 
stand to be the government to-day, and the only question 
that has been mooted is really whether one man should be 
put at the head of that government as a mayor, or whether 
you should have three. I agree that probably three men 
are better, where you have real legislative functions to per- 
form. I am inclined to think that, where the legislative 
functions are reduced to a minimum and consist in little more 
than mere executive regulation, possibly the one-headed 
form is the better, for executive purposes and to fix the 
responsibility; but I am only thinking out loud, and only 
because we are here talking right out in meeting I am tell- 
ing you the reasons as they have been brought to me. 

Now I want to talk about the future. And the future of 
Washington! What an enormous development is before us! 
Why, I am not an imaginative man, but I would like to come 
back here a hundred years hence and see the beauties of 
which this city is capable ! Right here, under our noses for a 
time, under our very eyes, are those beautiful Potomac 



AND STATE PAPERS 85 

flats that are going to make as fine parks and parkways as 
there are in the world ! Those parks ought to be connected 
with the Rock Creek Park by means of the mouth of Rock 
Creek, or otherwise; and then through them all there ought 
to be carried a park clear around, including the Soldiers' 
Home, and completing the circuit with Rock Creek at the 
other end. Then, too, there is the development in Anacostia 
and along the Eastern Branch. Then, the opportunities 
for playgrounds that there are in Washington! It just 
makes my mouth water for my poor city of Cincinnati, when 
I look out and can see clear down to the Potomac and see 
six and seven baseball matches going on with all the fervor 
of Young America, and nobody to say them nay! And to 
think — to think that we had a genius a hundred years ago, 
almost, in his way, as matchless as Washington, to make the 
plan for a great Capital, whose remains were buried here the 
other day, and whose plans were hardly changed in the new 
plan made by Burnham and his associates. I know there 
has been discussion as to that plan. There has been a feel- 
ing that perhaps it was slipped on to us at one time, 
and at another; but we all know, even my dear friend, 
good old Uncle Joe, knows, that we are going to build up to 
that plan some day. It is not coming at once, but we ought 
to thank God that we have got a plan like that to build to 
so that when we go on with the improvement every dollar 
that we put in goes to make Washington beautiful a hun- 
dred years hence. 

Then, Justice Stafford, in his very eloquent remarks, 
called attention to the fact that in 184G — I am sorry to say 
it ought to be characterized, at least as far as that is con- 
cerned, as a day of small things — when the Congress could 
have recited this: "Whereas, no more territory ought to 
be held under the exclusive legislation given to Congress 
over the District, which is the seat of the general govern- 
ment, than may be necessary and proper for the purposes of 
such a seat. Therefore" — we give back all that we got from 
Virginia. It is true the early statute said that no buildings 



8G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

should be put on anything but the Maryland side of the 
river, and perhaps they felt that as we were not going to use 
that side for buildings, they did not need it at all. I have 
never been able to satisfy myself that that retrocession was 
within the power of Congress to make. They did attempt 
to settle it once in the Supreme Court, but the Supreme 
Court has a facility in avoiding the main question, born 
of long practice. And when a gentleman who is paying taxes 
on this side asks that they be extended to the other side, on 
the ground that that retrocession did not carry Virginia, so 
that he might have his taxes reduced, the Supreme Court 
says that he can not do it in a collateral way; says that, 
as both parties to the transaction seem to be satisfied up to 
this time, they do not intend to investigate or seek any bur- 
dens that their salaries do not require them to meet. We 
have never had that question tested. I believe we ought 
to look forward to a great city of Washington, and while 
the Anglo Saxon — and especially the Anglo Saxon in 
Virginia — holds on to territory as long as he can, it might 
be possible by agitating the question in a legal way to induce 
another settlement by which we should get the only part 
of that that we really would like to have, the part that we 
own now in fee, the eleven hundred acres of the Arlington 
estate, and a great deal that is unoccupied, leaving Alexan- 
dria out, and Falls Church, and taking in only that that is 
uninhabited, so that we may have in this District, under our 
fostering control, where we can build roads and make the 
District still more beautiful, that bank of the Potomac on the 
other side, as you go up toward Cabin John Bridge. We 
will need it; the city will continue to grow. It may be, as 
Justice Stafford has said, that there will be inaugurated a 
protest by the people living here that they have not political 
power; but I think that the Justice will find, when he comes 
to looking into the hearts of the American people, that they 
will not be convinced when they come to Washington that the 
Washingtonians are suffering to that degree that requires a 
reversal of the policy adopted, with entire clearness of mind 



AND STATE PAPERS 87 

by the framers of the Constitution. Washington, who 
doubtless inserted that particular provision in the Constitu- 
tion, through his influence, also had L'Enfant draw the 
plans of Washington, and the plans of Washington were not 
adapted to a village like Alexandria and the village that was 
in the District at the time we came here — that was adapted 
to a city of magnificent distances, and to a city of millions 
of inhabitants; and therefore the clause was adopted, know- 
ing that jusl such a city we would have here, and just such a 
city would have to get along, relying upon the training in 
self-government of the representatives of eighty millions of 
people to do justice by it and its residents. 

Now. my dear friends. I want to say to you that I have 
got into ;i constitutional discussion here thai I did not anti- 
cipate, bul 1 hope it has not clouded my meaning, which I 
intended to make as clear as possible, that I am deeply inter- 
ested in the welfare of the District, I am deeply interested 
in securing good government to every man. woman and child 
in this District, and to secure so far as is possible, with the 
original plan under the Constitution, such voice as the 
people of the Districl may require in their local matters. 
Hut, when it comes to defining how that is to be given, I can 
not lie more explicit than to say it must rest ultimately on 
the right of petition. I do not see how you can do any- 
thing else. I am sure that if you will constantly agitate, 
and if you will have as eloquenl an orator as Justice Staf- 
ford talk to the committees of the House and Senate every 
year, he will rouse them to such a desire to save you from 
the "slavery" that he has pictured, that you will get the 
attention you deserve. 



VIII 

MESSAGE CONCERNING AFFAIRS IN 
PORTO RICO 

(MAY 10, 1909) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

AN EMERGENCY has arisen in Porto Rico which makes 
it necessary for me to invite the attention of the Con- 
gress to the affairs of that island, and to recommend legisla- 
tion at the present extra session amending the act under which 
the island is governed. 

The regular session of the legislative assembly of Porto 
Rico adjourned March 11th last without passing the usual 
appropriation bills. A special session of the assembly was 
as once convened by the governor, but after three days, on 
March 16th, it again adjourned without making the appro- 
priations. This leaves the island government without pro- 
vision for its support after June 30th next. The situation 
presented is, therefore, of unusual gravity. 

The present government of Porto Rico was established 
by what is known as the Foraker Act, passed April 12, 1900, 
and taking effect May 1, 1900. Under that act the chief 
executive is a governor appointed by the President and con- 
firmed by the Senate. A secretary, attorney-general, treas- 
urer, auditor, commissioner of the interior, and commissioner 
of education, together with five other appointees of the 
President, constitute the executive council. The executive 
council must have in its membership not less than five native 
Porto Ricans. The legislative power is vested in the 
legislative assembly, which has two coordinate branches. 
The first of these is the executive council just described, and 
the second is the house of delegates, a popular and repre- 
ss 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 80 

sentative body, with members elected by the qualified electors 
of the seven districts into which the island is divided. 

The statute directing how the expenses of government 
are to he provided leaves some doubt whether this function 
is not committed solely to the executive council, but in prac- 
tice the legislative assembly has made appropriations for all 
the expenses other than for salaries fixed by Congress, and 
it is too late to reverse that construction. 

Ever since the institution of the present assembly, the 
house of delegates has uniformly held up the appropriation 
hills until the last minute of the regular session, and has 
sought to use the power to do so as a means of compelling 
the concurrence of the executive council in legislation which 
the house desired. 

In the last regular legislative assembly, the house of dele- 
gates passed a bill dividing the island into several counties 
and providing county governments; a hill to establish man- 
ual-training schools', a hill for the establishment of an agri- 
cultural hank; a bill providing that vacancies in the offices 
of mayors and councilmen be filled by a vote of the muni- 
cipal councils instead <»f by the governor, and a bill put- 
ting in the control of the largest taxpayers in each municipal 
district the selection in great part of the assessors of property. 

The executive council declined to concur in these bills. 
It objected to the agricultural bank bill on the ground that 
I he revenues of the island were not sufficient to carry out 
the plan proposed, and to the manual-training-school bill 
because in plain violation of the Foraker Act. It objected 
to the change in the law concerning the appraisement of 
property on the ground that the law was intended to put too 
much power, in respect of the appraisement of property 
for taxation, in the hands of those having the most property 
to tax. The chief issue was a bill making all the judges in 
municipalities elective. Under previous legislation there 
are twenty-six municipal judges who are elected to office. 
By this bill it was proposed to increase the elective judges 
from twenty-six to sixty-six in number, and at the same 



90 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

time to abolish the justices of the peace. The change was 
objected to on the ground that the election of municipal 
judges had already interfered with the efficient and impartial 
administration of justice, had made the judges all of one 
political faith and mere political instruments in the hands of 
the central committee of the Unionist or dominant party. 
The attitude of the executive council in refusing to pass 
these bills led the house of delegates to refuse to pass the 
necessary appropriation bills. 

The facts recited demonstrate the willingness of the repre- 
sentatives of the people in the house of delegates to subvert 
the government in order to secure the passage of certain 
legislation. The question whether the proposed legislation 
should be enacted into law was left by the fundamental act 
to the joint action of the executive council and the house of 
delegates as the legislative assembly. The house of dele- 
gates proposes itself to secure this legislation without respect 
to the opposition of the executive council, or else to pull 
down the whole government. This spirit, which has been 
growing from year to year in Porto Rico, shows that too 
great power has been vested in the house of delegates and 
that its members are not sufficiently alive to their oath- 
taken responsibility, for the maintenance of the govern- 
ment, to justify Congress in further reposing in them abso- 
lute power to withhold appropriations necessary for the 
government's life. 

For these reasons I recommend an amendment to the 
Foraker Act providing that whenever the legislative assembly 
shall adjourn without making the appropriations necessary 
to carry on the government, sums equal to the appropriations 
made in the previous year for the respective purposes shall 
be available from the current revenues and shall be drawn 
by the warrant of the auditor on the treasurer and counter- 
signed by the governor. Such a provision applies to the 
legislatures of the Philippines and Hawaii, and it has pre- 
vented in those two countries any misuse of the power of 
appropriation. 



AND STATE PAPERS 91 

The house of delegates sent a committee of three to Wash- 
ington, while the executive council was represented by the 
secretary and a committee consisting of the attorney-general 
and the auditor. I referred both committees to the Secretary 
of the Interior, whose report, with a letter from Governor 
Post, and the written statements of both committees, accom- 
pany this message. 

I have had one personal interview with the committee 
representing the house of delegates, and suggested to them 
that if the house of delegates would pass the appropriation 
hills without insisting upon the passage of the other bills by 
the executive council, I would send a representative of the 
Government to Porto Rico to make an investigation and 
report in respect to the proposed legislation. Their answer, 
which shows them not to be in a compromising mood, was 
as follows: 

"If the legislative assembly of Porto Rico would be called 
to an extraordinary session exclusively to pass an appropri- 
ation bill, taking into consideration the state of affairs down 
the island and the high dissatisfaction produced by the intol- 
erant attitude of the executive council, and also taking into 
consideration the absolute resistance of the house to do any 
act against its own dignity and the dignity of the country, it 
is the opinion of these commissioners that no agreement 
would be attained unless the council feel disposed to accept 
the amendments of the house of delegates. 

"However, if in the proclamation calling for an extra- 
ordinary session the judicial and municipal reforms would 
be mentioned, and if the executive council would accepl that 
the present justices of the peace be abolished and municipal 
judges created in every municipality, and that vacancies 
occurring in mayorships and judgeships be tilled by the 
municipal councils, as provided in the so-called 'municipal 
bills' passed by the house in its last session, then the com- 
missioners believe that the appropriation bills will be passed 
in the house as introduced in the council without delay." 



92 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Porto Rico has been the favored daughter of the United 
States. The sovereignty of the island in 1899 passed to the 
United States with the full consent of the people of the island. 

Under the law all the customs and internal-revenue taxes 
are turned into the treasury of Porto Rico for the mainte- 
nance of the island government, while the United States pays 
out of its own Treasury the cost of the local army — i. e., 
a full Porto Rican regiment — the revenue vessels, the light- 
house service, the coast surveys, the harbor improvements, 
the marine-hospital support, the post-office deficit, the 
weather bureau, and the upkeep of the agricultural experi- 
ment stations. 

Very soon after the change of sovereignty a cyclone des- 
troyed a large part of Porto Rican coffee culture; $200,000 
was expended from the United States Treasury to buy rations 
for those left in distress. The island is policed by 700 men, 
and complete tranquillity reigns. 

Before American control 87 per cent, of the Porto Ricans 
were unable to read or write, and there was not in this island, 
containing a million people, a single building constructed 
for public instruction, while the enrolment of pupils in such 
schools as there were, 551 in number, was but 21,000. 
To-day in the island there are 160 such buildings, and the 
enrolment of pupils in 2,400 schools has reached the num- 
ber of 87,000. The year before American sovereignty there 
was expended $35,000 in gold for public education. Under 
the present government there is expended for this purpose 
a total of a million dollars a year. 

When the Americans took control there were 172 miles 
of macadamized road. Since then there have been con- 
structed 452 miles more, mostly in the mountains, making 
in all now a total of 624 miles of finely planned and admir- 
ably constructed macadamized roads — as good roads as 
there are in the world. 

In the course of the administration of this island, the 
United States medical authorities discovered a disease of 
tropical anaemia which was epidemic and was produced 



AND STATE PAPERS 93 

by a microbe called the "hook worm." It so much impaired 
the energy of those who suffered from it, and so often led to 
complete prostration and death, that it became necessary 
to undertake its cure by widespread governmental effort. 
I am glad to say that 225,000 natives, or one-fourth of the 
entire population, have been treated at government expense, 
and the effect has been much to reduce the extent and severity 
of the disease and to bring it under control. Substantially 
every person in the island has been vaccinated and small- 
pox has practically disappeared. 

There is complete free trade between Porto Rico and the 
United States, and all customs duties collected in the United 
States on Porto Rican products subsequent to the date of 
Spanish evacuation, amounting to nearly $3,000,000, have 
been refunded to the island treasury. The loss to the 
revenues of the United States from the free admission of 
Porto Rican products is $15,000,000 annually. The wealth 
of the island is directly dependent upon the cultivation of 
the soil, to cane, tobacco, coffee, and fruit, for which we in 
America provide the market. Without our fostering benev- 
olence the business of Porto Rico would be as prostrate 
as are some of the neighboring West Indian Islands. Before 
American control the trade balance against the island was 
over $12,500,000, while the present balance of trade in 
favor of the island is $2,500,000. The total of exports 
and imports has increased from about $22,000,000 before 
American sovereignty to $56,000,000 at the present day. 
At the date of the American occupation the estimated 
value of all agricultural land was about $30,000,000. Now 
the appraised value of the real property in the island reaches 
$100,000,000. The expenses of government before American 
.control were $2,969,000, while the receipts were $3,644,000. 
For the year 1906 the receipts were $4,250,000, and the 
expenditures were $4,084,000. Of the civil servants in 
the central government, 343 are Americans and 2,548 are 
native Porto Ricans. There never was a time in the his- 
tory of the island when the average prosperity of the Porto 



94 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Rican has been higher, when his opportunity has been 
greater, when his liberty of thought and action was more 
secure. 

Representatives of the house of delegates insist in their 
appeals to Congress and to the public that from the stand- 
point of a free people the Porto Ricans are now subjected 
under American control to political oppression and to a much 
less liberal government than under that of Spain. To prove 
this they refer to the provisions of a royal decree of 1897, 
promulgated in November of that year. The decree related 
to the government of Porto Rico and Cuba and was undoubt- 
edly a great step forward in granting a certain sort of auton- 
omy to the people of the two islands. The war followed 
within a few months after its promulgation, and it is impos- 
sible to say what its practical operation would have been. 
It was a tentative arrangement, revocable at the pleasure 
of the Crown, and had, in its provisions, authority for the 
governor-general to suspend all of the laws of the legisla- 
ture of the islands until approved or disapproved at home, 
and to suspend at will all constitutional guaranties of life, 
liberty, and property, supposed to be the basis of civil liberty 
and free institutions. The insular legislature had no power 
to enact new laws or to amend existing laws governing prop- 
erty rights or the life and liberty of the people. The juris- 
diction to pass these remained in the hands of the National 
Cortes and included the mass of code laws governing the 
descent and distribution and transfer of property and con- 
tracts, and torts, land laws, notarial laws, laws of waters and 
mines, penal statutes, civil, criminal, and administrative 
procedure, organic laws of the municipalities, election laws, 
the code of commerce, etc. 

In contrast with this, under its present form of government 
the island legislature possesses practically all the powers of 
an American commonwealth, and the constitutional guar- 
anties of its inhabitants, instead of being subject to sus- 
pension by executive discretion, are absolutely guaranteed 
by act of Congress. The great body of substantive law now 



AND STATE PAPERS 95 

in force in the island — political, civil, and criminal code, 
codes of political, civil, and criminal procedure, the revenue, 
municipal, electoral, franchise, educational, police, and 
public- works laws, and the like — has been enacted by the 
people of the island themselves, as no law can be put upon 
the statute books unless it has received the approval of the 
representative lower house of the legislature. In no single 
case has the Congress of the United States intervened to 
annul or control acts of the legislative assembly. For the 
first time in the history of Porto Rico the island is living 
under laws enacted by its own legislature. 

It is idle, however, to compare the political power of the 
Porto Rictus under the royal decree of LS!)7, when their 
capacity to exercise it with benefit to themselves was never 
in fact tested, with that which they have under the Foraker 
Act. The question we have before us is whether their 
course since the adoption of the Foraker Act does not show 
the necessity for withholding from them the absolute power 
given by that act to the legislative assembly over appro- 
priations, when the house of delegates, as a coordinate 
branch of that assembly, shows itself willing and anxious 
to use such absolute power, not to supporl and maintain 
the government, but to render it helpless. If the Porto 
Ricans desire a change in the form of the Foraker Act. this 
is a matter for congressional consideration dependent on 
the effect of such a change on the real political progress ie th : 
island. 

Such a change should be sought in an orderly way, and not 
brought to the attention of Congress by paralyzing the arm 
of the existing government. 1 do not doubt that the terms 
of the existing fundamental act might be improved, cer- 
tainly in qualifying some of its provisions as to the respective 
jurisdictions of the executive council and the legislative 
assembly; and I suggest to Congress the wisdom of sub- 
mitting to the appropriate committees this question of 
revision. Rut no action of this kind should be begun until 
after, by special amendment of the Foraker Act, the abso- 



96 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

lute power of appropriation is taken away from those who 
have shown themselves too irresponsible to enjoy it. 

In the desire of certain of their leaders for political power 
Porto Ricans have forgotten the generosity of the United 
States in its dealings with them. This should not be an 
occasion for surprise, nor in dealing with a whole people 
can it be made the basis of a charge of ingratitude. When 
we, with the consent of the people of Porto Rico, assumed 
guardianship over them and the guidance of their destinies, 
we must have been conscious that a people that had enjoyed 
so little opportunity for education could not be expected 
safely for themselves to exercise the full power of self- 
government; and the present development is only an indi- 
cation that we have gone somewhat too fast in the extension 
of political power to them for their own good. 

The change recommended may not immediately convince 
those controlling the house of delegates of the mistake they 
have made in the extremity to which they have been willing 
to resort for political purposes, but in the long run it will 
secure more careful and responsible exercise of the power 
they have. 

There is not the slightest evidence that there has been 
on the part of the governor or of any member of the execu- 
tive council a disposition to usurp authority, or to withhold 
approval of such legislation as was for the best interests of 
the island, or a lack of sympathy with the best aspirations 
of the Porto Rican people. 



IX 

ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE PENN- 
SYLVANIA MEMORIAL, AT PETERSBURG, 
VIRGINIA 

(.MAY 19, 1909) 

My Fellow Citizens: 

WE ARE met to-day on the soil of Virginia to dedi- 
cate a memorial to the bravery of the sons of 
Pennsylvania exhibited in a contest to the death with the 
sons of Virginia and the South. We stand here in the 
center of the bloodiest and most critical operations of the 
last year of the civil war, only a few miles distant from that 
dramatic scene at Appomattox between Grant and Lee, 
which marked the great qualities of the heart and soul of 
each, and which was the real end of the terrific struggle 
between the two sections. Here, in and about Petersburg, 
the outworks of Richmond, the home of the Confederacy, 
were carried on those besieging operations begun late in the 
spring of 18(>t and continued with the courage and the 
tenacity of purpose characteristic of the Federal commander 
for nearly a year, and resisted with the bravery and strategy 
and wealth of expedient of the Confederate leader until 
the forces of the South, worn out by the constant assaults and 
the incessant hammering, were compelled to yield to the 
greater numbers and the greater resources of the North. 
To Pennsylvania, as one of the great States of the Union, 
engaged in the determination to save it, fell the burden of 
furnishing tens of thousands of men for the struggle in every 
part of the line of attack; but especially in the Army of the 
Potomac was the force of her people and their devotion to 
the cause felt. Besides her serried columns, she contributed 

97 



98 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to the Union army, Major-General George C. Meade, the 
commander of the Army of the Potomac; four corps com- 
manders, Hancock, Humphreys, Birney, and Parke, together 
with Gregg, the commander of the cavalry division — a 
roster of which she may well be proud. 

The mine under the Petersburg works which was success- 
fully exploded in the early summer of '64 was the work of 
the miners of Pennsylvania enlisted in the 48th Regiment 
of that State, and the work which was done by them called 
for special mention in the dispatches of General Meade. 
In the operations in and about Petersburg, from the early 
summer of '64 until the surrender at Appomattox in '65, 
there were engaged from Pennsylvania upward of eighty 
thousand men, a larger number than now constitutes the 
army of the United States. Upon the 25th of March, 1865, 
General Lee determined to make an assault upon the Federal 
besieging lines east of the town, and successfully carried 
them by attack of a division under General Gordon, only 
to be ultimately defeated by the attack offered by Hart- 
ranft's two Pennsylvania brigades. These brigades had 
just been recruited and might have been expected to yield 
to the terrific onslaught of the Confederate veterans; but, 
taking on the stubbornness and courage of their great 
brigade commander, they withstood the battle and turned 
the enemy and added to the martial renown of the Keystone 
State. 

It is forty-four years since the battle of Fort Stedman and 
the subsequent victory of the Hartranft brigade. In the 
time which has passed, the bitterness of the internecine 
struggle has passed away, and we now treasure as a common 
heritage of the country the bravery and the valor of both 
sides in that controversy. A memorial which marks the stead- 
fastness, the courage, and the soldierly qualities of the forces 
engaged in defense of the Union, finds its true significance 
and meaning in the corresponding bravery and courage of 
those with whom the battle was fought. 

The Army of the Potomac under Grant and Meade was 



AND STATE PAPERS 99 

seconded and supported by a generous government. Con- 
stant reinforcements, generous supplies of food and cloth- 
ing, needful fuel and shelter, the tender ministrations of phy- 
sicians and nurses, and frequent communication with home 
and friends — all these abounded in the Union lines. It was 
hardly so with the Confederate forces. Scantily clothed, 
rarely on more than half-rations and for considerable periods 
reduced to an allowance of bacon and meal hardly suffi- 
cient to sustain life, the long winter through, their shiver- 
ing infantry manned the ever-extending siege works, and 
made head against the vigorous assaults of the Union army 
until their depleted ranks were not longer equal to the 
defense of their attenuated lines and they gave up the con- 
test which by any other soldiers but the tried and seasoned 
veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia would long 
before have been abandoned. We could not dedicate this 
beautiful and enduring memorial to the volunteer soldiers 
of Pennsylvania with such a sense of its justice and appro- 
priateness, had they not been confronted by an enemy 
capable of resisting their assaults with equal valor and forti- 
tude. Pennsylvania's pride must be in the victory achieved 
by her men against so brave, resolute and resourceful an 
enemy. 

That we can come here to-day and in the presence of 
thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the 
gallant army of Northern Virginia and of their descendants, 
establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable 
welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of 
the sections and a universal confession that all that was done 
was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sec- 
tions had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured 
to the common benefit of all. 

The men of the Army of Northern Virginia fought for a 
principle which they believed to be right and for which they 
were willing to sacrifice their lives, their homes — all, indeed, 
which men hold most dear. As we recognize their heroic 
services, so they and their descendants welcome the great 



100 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the soil of Virginia and 
join that commonwealth in honoring the services rendered 
by its gallant sons in the struggle for the preservation of the 
Union. The contending forces of now half a century ago 
have given place to a new North and a new South, and to 
a more enduring union in whose responsibilities and whose 
glorious destiny we equally and gratefully share. 



X 

ADDRESS AT THE AUDITORIUM, CHARLOTTE, 

N. C. 

(MAY 20, 1909) 

Governor Kitchin and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Carol mas: 

ONE of the embarrassments that attends the intense 
pleasure I have in coming into the Southland is the 
consciousness that I will have to do some speaking, and 
that you are so used to eloquence of the highest order that 
I have to submit myself to a comparison that is always 
invidious. lam here this afternoon merely to talk to 
you. What I have to say will not rise to the dignity of 
a speech. 

In the first place, I should like to express my sincere 
gratitude to the Governor of your State, to the Senators 
of your State, and to the Representatives of your State, who 
have done me the honor to be present on this occasion, and 
to give me welcome. I should like to include, too, those 
members of the Confederate veterans, those members of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, those members of the Daugh- 
ters of the Revolution, that distinguished lady, the widow 
of Stonewall Jackson, and all the other charming and delight- 
ful people who exposed themselves to the elements this morn- 
ing to celebrate this day, and in part, I hope, to give me 
welcome. 

I wish also to express to the committee of arrangements 
my deep regret that Mrs. Taft was not able to be present to 
share the welcome which your committee was good enough 
to tender her. I assure you I do not make nearly so good a 
show when the better half of my firm is not with me. 

We are here to celebrate a declaration of independence. 

101 



102 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

There are some unregenerate persons who live in South 
Carolina and elsewhere who for various motives have cast 
a doubt upon the claim. Now anybody that comes to 
Charlotte who is not willing to admit in the full the declara- 
tion of independence made in Mecklenburg, is in the position 
of a man of whom a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeals 
of Ireland told me. I met him in Canada. He had a good 
deal of experience in courts, and he was redolent with Irish 
stories. He said that he was holding court in the County 
of Tipperary, and that a man came before him and a jury 
charged in the indictment with manslaughter, and that the 
evidence showed that the deceased had come to his death 
by a blow from a blackthorn stick in the hands of the defend- 
ant; but the evidence also showed that the man who died 
had a "paper skull," as it is called in medical parlance — 
unduly thin. The verdict brought in was that of "guilty 
of manslaughter," and his lordship called the man before 
him and asked him whether he had anything to say why 
the sentence of the court should not be pronounced upon him. 
The defendant, turning to his lordship, said: "No, your 
Lordship, I have nothing to say, but I would like to ask one 
question." "What, my man, is that?" said he. "I 
would like to ask: What the divil a man with a head like 
that was doing in Tipperary." I would like to ask in explan- 
ation of my position, what the "divil" a man who does not 
believe in the declaration at Mecklenburg is doing in this 
presence. 

The claim is that more than twelve months before the 
members of the Continental Congress declared that it 
was necessary to have a separate and independent gov- 
ernment in this country, free from British control, that 
declaration was made in the court-house in this town of 
Charlotte, by a committee of the County, of whom there 
are now descendants living among you entitled to your 
respect and to your congratulation on such ancestry. There 
is a controversy as to what the exact words were that were 
used in that declaration. I am not going to enter upon 



AND STATE PAPERS 103 

any such discussion, but I am going to point out what seems 
to me to be, whether you take one version or the other, 
the very important part of that declaration viewed from the 
standpoint of practical patriotism and practical states- 
manship. The general declaration as to the rights of 
man I do not count nearly so important, looked at from the 
standpoint of the responsibility of the people who made it, 
as the practical provision contained in that declaration for 
a government which was to succeed the British Govern- 
ment, and to accept all the responsibilities, to maintain a 
government of law and order, and a government which 
should have a military force to defend itself. My friends, 
these general declarations unaccompanied by some sense 
of the responsibility of self-government are worth little or 
nothing. It is the men who go forward knowing what they 
are doing when they are culling off their relation to one 
government, and understand that the only justification for 
so doing is the preparation and the practical preparation of 
a new government. That is what makes Anglo-Saxon 
liberty; that is what has distinguished our race for a thou- 
sand years, that we dealt witli what was practical and not 
with what was poetical and oratorical and rhetorical. 

I want to call your attention in enforcing what I am 
talking about to the guaranties of lite — the guaranties as 
we know them in the Constitution, of life, liberty and prop- 
erty. They consist not solely in general resolutions, that we 
believe in liberty, and we believe every man ought to be free, 
and we believe that he ought to be treated justly, and we 
believe he ought not to be imprisoned except lawfully. Is 
that all? No. That is not all we have in our Constitution. 
If that is all we had, it would not be worth the paper it is 
written on; it would not be worth more than the hundred 
constitutions that have been made in various countries, 
whose names it would be invidious to mention, which con- 
stitutions have gone down and haven't made a ripple on the 
ocean of civilization. What is it in the Constitution of the 
United States inherited from our British ancestry that 



104 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

makes that instrument and all the instruments of the State 
constitutions so valuable ? It is that each guaranty is a 
practical method of procedure by which the liberty and the 
rights of the individual are secured. What are they ? The 
writ of habeas corpus. What is that ? That is a method of 
procedure. It is a method by which a man when he is im- 
prisoned has the right to go to any judge and say to that 
judge: "I wish you to call my captors here and have them 
tell you whether I am lawfully imprisoned or not," and if 
that judge does not do it, he creates a right to action against 
himself which usually involves imprisonment. That is 
a practical method. It is a procedure. It is not a general 
declaration. It is something that everybody can tell about. 
I am a little more emphatic about this because I have come 
up against the other kind of declarations in some of my 
experiences in the Philippines. A gentleman came to see 
me one morning, the leading counsel in Manila, who had 
drafted the constitution of the Philippines, and at the same 
time an old man came in with a petition to me. I was then 
Chairman of the Philippine Commission, and the petition 
showed that this old man's son had been six years in Bilibid, 
imprisoned without a trial, and without knowing what he 
was there for. I said to the lawyer, "Why don't you get 
out a writ of habeas corpus?" He said: "What is that 
writ?" I said: "It is a petition inquiring into the lawful- 
ness of his imprisonment, and General Otis has issued the 
order granting that writ or the allowance of that writ, and 
you can have it here." He asked me to draw up a petition, 
which I did, and he took it into one of the local courts, which 
happened to be presided over by an American. He went 
out to Bilibid prison and before he got through that day he 
had filed ninety petitions for the writ of habeas corpus to 
release people at Bilibid prison who had been there from 
four to ten years. When they heard at whose instance he 
had gotten them out, they wanted to attend in a mass and 
come and thank me at my house. I expressed my appre- 
ciation of their gratitude, but as I was not quite sure but that 



AND STATE PAPERS 105 

half of them ought to have been where they were anyhow, 
I excused them from coming and received an acknowledg- 
ment in the form of a table ornament, such as they give 
in the Philippines, which consists of a bundle of toothpicks. 

Togo on, the writ of habeas corpus is one thing; an indict- 
ment by grand jury is another. That is mere procedure. That 
is not a general right. It is a mere form of procedure. The 
right of trial by jury is another form of procedure. 
Then there is the 14th amendment and the other, the 1,5th 
amendment to the Constitution, which accords to every 
one the right not to be deprived of his property without 
due process of law. That does not say that you are not to be 
deprived of your property unjustly. You may be. All 
that says is that you shall have a hearing before a tribunal, 
and that if a man is going to rob you he has got to rob you 
in a regular way. Now, that is practical. The Anglo- 
Saxon ancestor knew that if he could once get it before court 
he would have "a show for his white alley," that he would 
have a day in that court, and that that was the true basis of 
civil liberty. So it is with the declarations that were made 
at Mecklenburg. You go over them and see that they 
create selectmen, they create military guards, they create 
courts with jurisdiction, they create courts to make collection 
of debts, and they made every provision which a single com- 
munity like this could make, together with commitments 
for felony, to await the decision of courts to be created by 
the highest authority under the authority of the (Jeneral 
Congress. Now, there are tilings in that declaration that 
make me thrill with pride that there was a community in this 
country — and I venture to say this was not the only com- 
munity, but it seems to have been the one most charged with 
its sense of responsibility — which knew that self-government 
was not a mere gift, but it was something which when it is to 
be enjoyed must be enjoyed with a full sense of the respon- 
sibility of those enjoying it, and with the idea that there is 
a duty imposed on every one who enjoys it of seeing to it that 
it is carried on for the benefit of all. 



10G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The Scotch-Irishmen who lived in this community were 
hard-headed. They were willing to take upon themselves 
the risk of being strung up as traitors to Great Britain; 
they were willing to fight it out, as they did so often there- 
after in the Hornet's Nest; but they recognized their respon- 
sibility as citizens and as individuals, that if they went into 
the business of self-government, they must make that 
government worthy of the name. Now, it is a fact that by 
reason of the lax government which Great Britian was able 
to give our colonies — I say lax — it was lax, though it 
was unjust by fits and starts — our ancestors were the best- 
prepared people for self-government that ever assumed an 
independent government. They had had two hundred 
years of independence in the sense of distance from the 
home government. When brought to mind they were 
attacked occasionally by such tyranny as Governor Tyrol 
manifested in North Carolina and as was manifested by other 
governors at different times throughout the other colonies, 
but all that time we were gathering experience, we were 
gathering a sense of responsibility as to our own commun- 
ities so that when in '75 you declared your independence 
here, and in '76 we all declared our independence at Phil- 
adelphia, we were in a condition with men as great, as able, 
as full of the knowledge of statecraft as any nation in Europe 
or any nation that ever lived, to step into the ranks of nations 
and carry on a government worthy the consideration of the 
entire world. Now, we have had a great deal of experience 
since that time. We have been through a number of wars. 
We watched the institution of slavery grow by unfortunate 
circumstances until it seemed to be an issue that had to be 
fought out, and that we could not cure the body politic except 
by an excision that threatened the whole physical structure 
of the nation. But we have lived that through. You in the 
Southland had the troubles, the suffering, the sad losses 
burned into your hearts with much more emphasis than we 
in the Northland, because here was the center of the war. 
And it is entirely natural that in that forty years which have 



AND STATE PAPERS 107 

succeeded the war, with the continuance here of the race 
whose fate was the cause of the war, that their condition, 
even after the magnanimous spirit shown on both sides at 
Appomattox was manifested to the world, there should con- 
tinue a bitterness of feeling that time and long time could 
only erase; but when we look back I think we must con- 
gratulate ourselves that even in that time the feeling has 
largely disappeared, and that we are now a more united 
country than ever since — I should say even decades before — 
the war. One could not stand, as I did, on the platform 
yesterday, and see 1,200 Union veterans from Pennsyl- 
vania wiio had taken part in the battles about Petersburg, 
meet and fraternize with five hundred veterans of the Con- 
federacy in their gray, and hear the expressions of mutual 
esteem and mutual appreciation of the bravery on both 
sides and the desire to further unite, without being convinced 
that that is a sincere and a deep-rooted feeling on both 
sides. It is true that political divisions have continued in 
such a way as at some times to seem to perpetuate the 
lines which were made at the time of the war, but even 
those lines are rapidly disappearing; and it is the duty 
of all of us with respect to political partisanship to 
wipe out those lines as far as we can, and to see, so far 
as we may, that in each State the tolerance of opinion 
shall continue until there shall be respectable parties on 
both sides of the line, because it is essential to have a good 
opposition to have a good government. Now, if there is 
anything that I can do in my administration to make that 
feeling of union more close, I shall do it. When I was run- 
ning for the presidency, I prided myself on having been the 
first Republican candidate that ever came into North Caro- 
lina seeking suffrages for the Republican Party. I did not 
carry the State, but I had a mighty good time. I am anxious, 
of course, speaking from a partisan standpoint and leaving 
my official position for a moment, that the Republican 
party of North Carolina should be strengthened merely 
to have a good fight every election, and, of course, in so far 



108 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

as I may legitimately, I should be glad to build up the Repub- 
lican Party. Now, I understand that some of my Republican 
friends think that I have lost sight of the Republican Party 
in putting on the Federal Bench in North Carolina, a gen- 
tleman recently upon the Supreme Bench of the State, a 
lawyer of the highest eminence and learning and integrity, 
and a Democrat. I promised, after I was President-elect 
— not before the election — to the South that I would do 
the best I could to wipe out the feeling that the central 
Government at Washington was a government alien to the 
Southland, and I pointed out that the only way by which the 
Executive could cure that feeling was, in so far as in him 
lay, to put into office men in whom the community at large, 
without regard to party, would have the highest confidence. 

Now, I am trying to do that, and I am going to appoint 
Republicans and I am going to appoint Democrats, striv- 
ing in each case to get a man who will commend himself to 
the community in which he lives. It is suggested that it is 
an insult to the Republicans of a district to appoint a Demo- 
crat a Judge because from that is to be inferred that there 
is no Republican worthy of the appointment, and I under- 
stand that there are some gentlemen in the Democratic 
party who are willing to make that inference as strong as 
possible, in order to stir up Republican dissatisfaction. But 
I venture to say that when the whole account is added up, 
that spirit will have disappeared and the Democrats who 
seek to utter it will find that it is not such a popular method 
of attacking the Republican Administration after all. 

I plead to my Republican friends as a vindication and 
justification for my course, the course of as orthodox a Repub- 
lican as ever filled the executive chair, and a man than whom 
there never was a President who did so much to maintain 
the standard of the Federal Judiciary, Benjamin Harrison, 
for he deemed it his duty to put one Democrat on the Supreme 
Bench and two on the Circuit Court of Appeals. The Federal 
Judiciary, my dear friends, to my mind is the strongest bul- 
wark that we have in all this country to protect ultimately 



AND STATE PAPERS 109 

our institutions of civil liberty. It is the guaranties of 
civil liberty in the Federal Constitution that we must love 
and must hug to our bosom if we continue this civilization. 
Therefore there is no more sacred duty that the Executive 
has than in the selection of men whose appointment and 
service on the Bench will strengthen it with all the people 
at large; and therefore ordinary considerations of political 
partisanship have much less application to the appointment 
of judges than they do to other and temporary offices. The 
Federal Judiciary should be as much appreciated in the 
South as it is in the North, and if I have an opportunity 
to make any appointments in the South, it will continue to 
be the chief duty I have to make such appointments as shall 
appeal to all the people whether they be Republican or 
Democrat, and I urge all citizens whether they be Repub- 
licans or Democrats, to accept the appointments made as 
men, if they are men, who will carry on I heir high duties 
with a single eye to the administration of justice. to accept 
them, and congratulate the people on their appointment, and 
not to make use of them for any partisan argument or partisan 
appeal. 

But now, my dear friends, I have got to the end of 
my speech, I believe. I think not that we are at a 
point where there is to be political revolution in the South. 
I never had such a dream, but I believe we are on 
the eve of such a condition in the South that there 
shall be complete tolerance of opinion, and that there 
shall grow into respectable power an opposition in each 
State which shall tend to the betterment of the Gov- 
ernment as it exists in the State, which shall give us 
occasionally, as you have already given us in North Carolina, 
a Republican in a crowd of Democrats, in order that we 
may have represented in the Congress at Washington your 
views without regard to some past issue, without regard to the 
ghost of an issue that really ought not to influence you in 
enforcing those particular economic views that you really 
entertain. Let me again say to you how my heart has been 



110 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

aroused by the cordiality of your reception, by the non- 
partisan welcome of your distinguished Governor and your 
Congressmen and your Senators, whether Republicans or 
Democrats, and to say to you that I haven't spoken here con- 
sciously a word to influence you in a partisan way, but it is 
impossible to discuss the conditions without mentioning 
the parties. I hope you will, therefore, forgive me for an 
apparent reference to political conditions when I am really 
only extending to you the right hand of fellowship as Ameri- 
cans, explaining possibly by inference some of the diffi- 
culties of conducting this Government as its Chief Executive. 
I thank you ! 



XI 

ADDRESS AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(.MAY 26, 1909) 

Mr. President, and Young Ladies and Gentlemen of the 
Graduating Class: 

I HAVE a good many engagements and I am tempted into 
them sometimes — before the engagements are to be 
met and the work is to be done — by such a mellifluous and 
forceful gentleman as your President; and then I am not 
reminded of the obligation thus assumed until I pick up the 
morning paper and find myself advanced as one of the 
chief attractions at some meeting where I don't feel myself 
at all as entitled to figure in that capacity. 

When your President came to me and asked me to come 
to Howard University he said thai he expected to celebrate 
the laying of the cornerstone of a new building here, given 
by Mr. Carnegie, and that incidentally there would be 
commencement exercises. I am a fairly good hand at a 
trowel and I thought possibly I might engage in the exercises 
of laying the cornerstone without being involved in a speech. 
But I find it to be otherwise. Nevertheless, 1 am glad to seize 
the opportunity of looking into your faces, you young men 
and women who are about to go out into the world and meet 
the obstacles which are before you and to overcome them 
successfully, as I sincerely hope you may. 1 am glad to be 
able to be here to testify to you my profound sympathy in 
your careers and my hope that they all may be successful. 

This institution here is the partial repayment of a debt- 
only partial — to a race to which a government and the 
people of the United States are eternally indebted. They 

ill 



112 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

brought that race into this country against its will. They 
planted it here irretrievably. They first put it in bondage 
and then they kept it in the ignorance that that bondage 
seemed to make necessary, under the system then in vogue. 
Then they freed it and put upon it the responsibilities of 
citizenship. Now, some sort of obligation follows that chain 
of facts with reference to the people who are responsible for 
what that government did. The obligation would be clearer, 
or rather, the method of its discharge would be easier, were 
it not for our constitutional system which throws generally 
upon the States the burden of education and leaves to the 
general government only certain limited jurisdiction with 
respect to the people. However, in so far as the District of 
Columbia is concerned, and the establishment of institutions 
of learning in this District, we are free from any embarrass- 
ment with respect to the carrying out of the obligation, and 
it is fitting that the Government of the United States should 
assume the obligation of the establishment and maintenance 
of a first-class University for the education of colored men. 
I am far from saying — and I wish to put in this caveat in 
advance, in order not to be met by an argument which has 
weight but has not weight when improperly used — that the 
colored race to-day, all of them, would be better off if they 
all had university education. I think they would be in a 
very bad way if they had, because they would not know how 
to use it and they would not find means of using it. No race 
would be better off if they were all educated as university 
men. The great body of the colored race, as the great body 
of the white race, must depend for their livelihood upon 
their manual labor, skilled or unskilled, or upon some occu- 
pation which requires less education than that which is 
conferred by a university, and if it is too widely extended, 
the effect of it is to put a lot of men into life who do not find 
occupations which are suited to their tastes, and to make them 
unhappy and really not fit for the life which is before them. 
On the other hand, that admission is far from a concession 
that it is not necessary for the success of the colored race that 



AND STATE PAPERS 113 

there be among them leaders of that race fitted by university 
education for that leadership. There is not any likelihood, 
with deference to persons who occupy a different position, 
that either in the generosity of the general government or in 
the generositv of individuals who found colored colleges and 
universities, there is to be such an opportunity given as is 
likelv to lead too many colored men to acquire university 
education as compared with the number of colored men 
that there are in the community and especially south of 
Mason and Dixon's line. The opportunity that there is 
for educated colored men to aid their race in the struggle 
before them for economic success and the maintenance of 
themselves as worthy and valuable members of the com- 
munity — the opportunity that there is for university men 
among colored men to a^>i>t in that movement, I say is 
very great indeed. 

Through the South one of the things that is essential is 
the cultivation of greater sanitation and greater attention to 
the laws of hygiene among the colored race. What they 
need in the South is a greal many more physicians of their 
own color and race to tell them how to live and to enable 
them to recover when they are subject to the many >icknesses 
to which they are subject by reason of the kind of life they 
lead in the South. 1 have had occasion to look into it and 
I am glad to oiler to the young doctors to whom I am address- 
ing myself an opportunity for a successful livelihood as physi- 
cians in the growing Southern communities where there are 
so many colored people coming to the front and where physi- 
cians well educated are able to make a good livelihood on 
the one hand, and on the other to do a substantial good to 
their race. 

The benefit that teachers educated here can do to their 
race goes without saying. Of course, the basis of the edu- 
cation of the colored people is in the primary schools and 
in the industrial schools — in schools framed after Hampton 
and Tuskegee and even those less ambitious, but still furnish- 
ing an industrial department. In those schools must be 



114 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

introduced teachers from such university institutions as this, 
and it is in furnishing the material for the faculties of those 
smaller — not smaller, but less ambitious schools — that 
such an institution as this shall have its chief function. 

Then, too, among the colored race, the ministers have a 
great influence. Now, if they are to wield that influence 
they can not be too highly educated; they can not know too 
much in order that they may carry on their sacred function 
and discharge it to the highest benefit of the race. 

I say these things with a good deal of emphasis because I 
know there are many who dispute the wisdom of large con- 
tributions to universities of the colored race like this, and 
at one time I was very much perplexed with the argument 
to know whether or not it was proper. But what is the fact ? 
There are several universities in this country, besides Howard 
University, devoted to the colored race; those are Lincoln, 
Fisk, Atlanta, Talladega and Wilberforce, and they have 
not, taken together, an endowment that exceeds $250,000. 
Now, when you consider that there are ten millions of Negroes 
in this country, you see how utterly inadequate, even for the 
education of the leaders, those universities, together with 
this, are; and there is opportunity for the founding of more, 
or certainly for the enlargement of this, as Congress and the 
people of the United States shall understand the useful part 
that this institution and institutions like it play in the real 
uplifting and onward progress of the race. 

I am delighted to think, because I have been in the South 
a good deal of late and have studied some of the conditions 
there, that they are getting better and better for the Negro 
race in certain respects that are not published to the world, 
but that really affect very much the conditions of those who 
live there. In all the growing communities of the South — 
I mean where there is a touch of the modern and a touch of 
progress and a touch of civilization — the white men of 
progress are beginning to appreciate the advantage of having 
a class like the colored men that they have there. They are 
anxious that they have an industrial education. They are 



AND STATE PAPERS 115 

anxious that they should make their way in the world and 
show their usefulness in the community. The truth is 
that the greatest hope that the Negro has, because he lives 
chiefly in the South, is the friendship and the sympathy of 
the white men with whom he lives in that neighborhood. 
I know it is not the habit to think so, but it is growing, and 
one of the things that misleads us most is the desperate, the 
extreme statements of white men from the South on the 
subject, but really they don't mean what they say. They 
are the last people that want to be taken literally. They 
have a theory that it may give them sometimes a little boost 
politically to talk in extremes and superlatives, but I have 
heard expressions from leading Negroes in various cities that 
confirm my judgment that the situation is growing better 
and better. I remember hearing the Reverend Dr. Walker, 
that Negro who went abroad and preached in Spurgeon's 
pulpit and was worthy to preach in that pulpit, express his 
friendship for the white people of Augusta where I spent five 
or six weeks, and express his view of the proposition that 
the Negro race should be moved to sonic other country than 
this. He said they were mighty well satisfied to live in 
Augusta until they went to glory, and that they did not want 
to go any where else until they did go to glory. Thai is the 
same sentiment I found in Charlotte and in Petersburg. I 
don't mean to say that there are not exceptions. 1 mean 
to say that those communities thai are moving forward 
are moving forward with a keen eye to progress and that 
they realize the advantage they have in the presence of the 
Negro race who are almost their only laborers. 

We have a gentleman at the head of the Jeanes trust fund 
who tells a good story. He said he was in one of the towns 
— I think it was in North Carolina — where they were bring- 
ing in some Italian immigrants and that an old colored man 
there inquired as to what they were doing. lie said they 
were white men who had come into the country from abroad. 
"Why," he said, "we's got white men enough already to 
work for — we can't do no more." Now, the fact is that 



116 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the progress of the race is outlining itself with great clearness, 
to me at least, in making itself a useful part of the community 
where it is, so that it shall not only awaken an altruistic spirit, 
or spirit of humanity, but, what is a good deal better to tie to, 
shall awaken the economic spirit of those with whom you 
live and who value your services as members of the com- 
munity and know how much you add to its success by being 
there and being valuable members of that community in 
accumulation, in your providence and in making the homes 
that are made in a successful community of Negroes in the 
South. 

It seems to me that the future is in the hands of the race 
itself. I do not mean to say that cruelties are not to exist 
in the future, and injustices, and a great many reasons why 
complaints should be made against the inhumanity of man, 
but I do mean to say that there never has been a time in the 
history of the Negro race when the future offered such a 
basis for belief in your success as a race and for the belief 
that you have it in your hands to make that success as it is 
to-day. Everything that I can do as the Executive in the 
way of helping along this University I expect to do. I expect 
to do it because I believe it is a debt of the people of the 
United States, it is an obligation of the Government of the 
United States, and it is money constitutionally applied to 
that which shall work out in the end the solution of one of 
the great problems that God has put upon the people of the 
United States. 



XII 

ADDRESS AT THE RODELPH SHALOM TEMPLE, 
PITTSBURG, PA. 

(.MAY 29, 1909) 

My dear Friends: 

I DO not claim to conform very strictly to religious ob- 
servances, but it has remained for the city of Pittsburg 
to bring me to church, both on Saturday and on Sunday. 

I esteem it a great privilege to appear before this intelligent 
and patriotic audience — at the instance of your leader, 
your Rabbi, who was a warm friend of my predecessor, and 
who, I am glad to think, has transferred his friendship for the 
time to me. 

I am nol altogether out of place in a Jewish tabernacle, 
for the church that I attended in Cincinnati, in my boyhood 
and young manhood, was immediately next to the .Jewish 
tabernacle of the Reverend Dr. Wise; and there were times 
in the history of both churches when there was an exchange 
between the pulpits. I am glad to be here this morning — 
this beautiful morning and in this beautiful church — -to show 
if possible by my presence how this is a Government of all 
the people, and how the Constitutional provision that there 
shall be no religious requirement or qualification for office or 
citizenship in this country is evidenced by the presence of the 
President of the United States in a Jewish tabernacle, where 
he feels himself as much at home and with as much support as 
he does in any other church in the country. 

The prayer to which we just listened, full of that liberality 
and love of humankind, makes one feel ashamed of all 
narrowness and bigotry in religion, and it gives me the great- 
est pleasure to say, as 1 do from the bottom of my heart, 

117 



118 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and 
under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed 
to live up to the highest standard of citizenship and patriotism. 
I thank your Rabbi, and I thank you, for the opportunity 
to appear before you and say this much. I am not a 
preacher. I am not in the habit of appearing in pulpits. It 
was not until I returned from the Philippines that I appeared 
once in a Presbyterian pulpit, once in an Episcopalian pulpit, 
once in a Unitarian pulpit, and now before a Jewish audience 
in the pulpit of a Jewish tabernacle. That makes a round, 
I think, that justifies my saying that I hope to be the Presi- 
dent of all the people, and to have your support, as you have 
given it to my predecessors, without stint and with every 
desire to make this a great country and a great Government. 



XIII 
ADDRESS AT GETTYSBURG 

(MAY 31, 1909) 

WE ARE gathered at this historic spot to-day to dedicate 
a monument to the memory of the officers and the 
enlisted men of the Regular Army who gave up their lives 
for their country in the three days' battle. It is but a tardy 
recognition of the Nation's debt to its brave defenders whose 
allegiance was purely to the Nation, without local color or 
strengthening of State or municipal pride. 

The danger of a standing army, entertained by our ances- 
tors, is seen in the constitutional restrictions and the com- 
plaints registered in the Declaration of Independence. It 
has always been easy to awaken prejudice against the possible 
aggressions of a regular army and a professional soldiery, 
and correspondingly difficult to create among the people, 
that love and pride in the army which we find to-day and 
frequently in the history of the country aroused on behalf of 
the navy. This has led to a varied and changeable policy 
in respect to the regular army. At times it has been 
reduced to almost nothing. In ITSt, there were but eighty 
men who constituted the regular army of the United States, 
and in Battery F of the 4th Artillery were fifty-five of 
them; but generally the absolute necessities in the defense 
of the country against the small wars, which embrace so 
large a part of our history, have induced the maintenance 
of a regular force, small to be sure, but one so well trained 
and effective as always to reflect credit upon the Nation. 

In the War of 1812, had we had a regular army of 10,000 
men, trained as such an army would have been, we should 
have been spared the humiliation of the numerous levies of 

119 



120 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

untrained troops and the enormous expense of raising an 
army on paper of 400,000 or 500,000 men, because with 
an effective force of 10,000 men, we might have promptly 
captured Canada and ended the war. 

The service rendered by the regular army in the Mexican 
War was far greater in proportion than that which it rendered 
in the Civil War, and the success which attended the cam- 
paigns of Taylor and of Scott were largely due to that body 
of men. 

To the little army of 25,000 men that survived the Civil 
War, we owe the opening up of the entire western country. 
The hardships and the trials of frontier Indian campaigns, 
which made possible the construction of the Pacific railroads, 
have never been fully recognized by our people, and the 
bravery and courage and economy of force compared with 
the task performed shown by our regular troops have never 
been adequately commemorated by Congress or the Nation. 

To-day, as a result of the Spanish War, the added respon- 
sibilities of our new dependencies in the Philippines, Porto 
Rico, and for some time in Cuba, together with a sense of the 
importance of our position as a world power, have led to 
the increase of our regular army to a larger force than ever 
before in the history of the country, but not larger in pro- 
portion to the increase in population and wealth than in the 
early years of the Republic. It should not be reduced. 

The profession of arms has always been an honorable one, 
and under conditions of modern warfare, it has become 
highly technical and requires years of experience and study 
to adapt the officers and men to its requirements. The 
general purpose of Congress and the American people, if one 
can say there is a plan or purpose, is to have such a nucleus 
as a regular army that it may furnish a skeleton for rapid 
enlargement in time of war to a force ten or twenty times 
its size, and at the same time be an appropriate instrument 
for accomplishing the purposes of the government in crises 
likely to arise, other than a war. 

At West Point, we have been able to prepare a body of 



AND STATE PAPERS 121 

professional soldiers, well trained, to officer an army, and 
numerous enough at the opening of the Civil War to give 
able commanders to both sides of that internecine strife. 

Upon the side of the North many of the officers were 
drafted to command the volunteer troops from the States, 
while the regular army, aggregating about 10,000 at the 
opening of the war, was increased to about 25,000 during 
its first year. More than half this army was engaged in the 
Battle of Gettysburg. Eleven regiments of infantry, five 
regiments of cavalry, twenty-six batteries of artillery, and 
three battalions of engineers. The infantry of the regular 
army were embraced in two brigades of the Third Division 
of the Fifth Corps under Major-General Sykes, himself a 
most able regular army officer. The cavalry was included 
in a Reserve Division under General Merrill, and the 
batteries were distributed among various army corps of the 
entire Federal force. 

Two of the most important and determining crises of the 
three days' battle were, first, the seizure of the Round Tops 
and the maintenance of the Federal control over thai great 
point of vantage, the possession of which by the Confederate 
forces would have taken the whole Federal line in the reverse; 
and the second was the resistance to Pickett's charge on the 
third dav of the bailie when the high point in the ( 'onl'ederale 
advance into Pennsylvania was turned, and Fee was defeated 
and hurried back into Southern territory, never again to 
plant his Confederate battle-flags on Northern soil. The 
taking of the Hound Tops and the driving back of the Con- 
federate forces was the work of Sykes' Fifth Army Corps, 
and especially of the two brigades of the Regular Infantry 
regiments, in which in killed and wounded alone the regulars 
lost l 2() per cent, of their full number, and some of their 
brigades, notably Burbank's, lost (i() per cent, in killed 
and wounded of the men engaged. With a desperate bravery 
worthy of the cause, they drove back the Confederate" forces 
and enabled General Meade to unite the left of Sickles' 3rd 
Corps with the right of the 5th Army Corps, and thus pre- 



122 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

sented a shorter but a firmer front with which to withstand 
the onslaught of Lee's army upon the third day. 

Without invidious comparison and in no way detracting 
from the courage and glory of the other branches of the 
service who united to resist Pickett's charge, it is well known 
that much of the effective resistance was by the artillery. 
The batteries of the regulars and volunteers under General 
Hunt made the resistance to that awful charge that gave the 
victory to the Union forces. The soul of dishing, in charge 
of Battery F, 4th Artillery, went up with the smoke of the 
last shots which sent Pickett's men reeling back from the 
point now marked as the high tide of the Confederacy. 

Time does not permit me to mention the names of the 
heroes of the regular. army whose blood stained this historic, 
field, and whose sacrifices made the Union victory possible. 
With my intimate knowledge of the regular army, their high 
standard of duty, their efficiency as soldiers, their high 
character as men, I have seized this opportunity to come 
here to testify to the pride which the Nation should have in 
its regular army, and to dedicate this monument to the pred- 
ecessors of the present regular army, on a field in which 
they won undying glory and perpetual gratitude from the 
Nation which they served. They had not the local associa- 
tions, they had not the friends and neighbors of the volun- 
teer forces to see to it that their deeds of valor were properly 
recorded and the value of their services suitably noted in 
the official records by legislation and congressional action, 
and they have now to depend upon the truth of history and 
in the cold, calm retrospect of the war as it was, to secure 
from Congress this suitable memorial of the work in the 
saving of the country which they wrought here. 

All honor to the Regular Army of the United States! 
Never in its history has it had a stain upon its escutcheon. 
With no one to blow its trumpets, with no local feeling or 
pride to bring forth its merits, quietly and as befits a force 
organized to maintain civil institutions and subject always 
to the civil control, it has gone on doing the duty which 



AND STATE PAPERS 123 

was its to do, accepting without a murmur the dangers of 
war, whether upon the trackless stretches of our western 
frontier, exposed to the arrows and the bullets of the Indian, 
or in the jungles and the rice paddies of the Philippines, on 
the hills and in the valleys about Santiago in Cuba, or in the 
tremendous campaigns of the Civil War itself, and it has 
never failed to make a record of duty done that should satisfy 
the most exacting lover of his country. 

It now becomes my pleasant duty to dedicate this monu- 
ment to the memory of the regular soldiers of the Republic 
who gave up their lives at Gettysburg and who contributed 
in a large degree to the victory of those three fateful days in 
the country's history. 



XIV 
AN ANSWER TO THE PANAMA CANAL CRITICS * 

THE Panama Canal continues to furnish copy for the 
newspapers and the magazines of the country. It 
j- being constructed by the United States Government for 
the benefit of world commerce, and every citizen of the 
United States, and indeed any citizen of the world, properly 
feels himself authorized to criticize the work as it is being 
done and to express his opinion as to the type of canal that 
is selected. In such an enormous work as the construction 
of the canal is likely to be, it would seem wise to have fixed 
definitely, at the beginning, the type and plan to be followed. 

When Dc Lesseps, having completed in triumph the Suez 
Canal, came to Panama, he began the construction of what 
his board of management and he intended to be a sea-level 
canal. Between that time and 1902, when the canal was 
offered for sale to the United States for $40,000,000 several 
boards were appointed for the purpose of recommending the 
besl course to be taken in the construction of the canal. Two 
of these boards were French, and all of them recommended 
the lock type of canal, with a dam at Bohio. We all remem- 
ber thai the Nicaragua route had a great many adherents 
in and out of Congress, and that for a time it seemed likely 
that That route would be selected. The natural conditions 
made ii necessary that the canal across Nicaragua should be 
of a lock type. When the change of plan from Nicaragua to 
Panama was made, it is quite evident, from the discussion, 
Prom the law, and from direct evidence, that it was expected 
thai the canal to be built would be of the lock type and 
would not be on the sea level. 

< >n«- of the most careful of the French boards that recom- 

»Thia article was prepared by Mr. Taft prim- to his inauguration, and was pub- 
lished in Ma lure a Magazine, May, 1909. 

V24 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 125 

mended the lock type pointed out that a lock canal was 
necessary because the floods of the Chagres River would be 
uncontrollable in case of a sea-level canal, and made such a 
canal impossible. In 1906 thirteen engineers were invited 
to consider the question of the proper type of the canal. 
Of these, eight were Americans and five foreigners. A 
majority, consisting of the five foreigners and three Ameri- 
cans, decided in favor of a canal that should be 150 feet 
across the bottom for more than nineteen miles and 200 feet 
across the bottom for a little more than twenty miles. Five 
American engineers — including Mr. Alfred Noble, chief 
engineer of the Pennsylvania Company, constructor of the 
"Soo" canal and locks, and dean of American engineers; 
Mr. Frederic P. Stearns, the chief engineer of the Metro- 
politan Water Board Company of Boston ; and Mr. Randolph, 
the constructor of the Chicago Drainage Canal — recom- 
mended the construction of a lock canal, the main feature of 
which was to be a lake with the level of the water at eighty- 
five feet above the sea. These reports were considered by 
the Isthmian Canal Commission, itself composed of engineers 
and men familiar with works of construction, and that 
commission, by a vote of five to one, recommended to the 
War Department and to the President the adoption of the 
minority report. This action of the commission was con- 
curred in by Mr. John F. Stevens, then chief engineer of the 
commission in charge of the work at the Isthmus. The 
Secretary of War and the President also approved the report 
of the minority of the consulting board and decided in favor 
of a lock canal. 

The question was submitted by President Roosevelt to 
Congress. It was unnecessary to do this, because, under 
the Spooner Act, the President had authority to build the 
canal, and so ha* 4 authority to determine what the type 
should be. The fact is that in reading the Spooner Act 
of 1902, directing the construction of the canal, it is im- 
possible to escape the construction that Congress at that 
time contemplated, not a sea-level, but a lock canal. 



126 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

However, the question was again fairly submitted to Congress 
upon all the reports made and all the evidence. 

After the reports had been made, the Senate Committee 
on [nteroceanic Canals conducted an examination of all the 
engineers and others with knowledge, in order to arrive at 
a ((inclusion in respect to the question thus submitted to 
Congress. The Senate Committee by a majority reported 
in favor of a sea-level canal, but when the matter was con- 
sidered in open Senate, where it was very fully discussed, 
the Senate accepted the minority report of that Committee 
and decided in favor of the lock canal. In the House of 
Representatives the resolution in favor of the lock canal was 
carried by a very decided majority. And so the law of 
Congress to-day fixes the type of the canal as a lock canal, at a 
level of eighty-five feet. Meantime, the organization of the 
instrumentalities for construction on the Isthmus has gone 
on with great rapidity and effectiveness, until the excavation 
has reached the very large amount of three millions of cubic 
yards of material a month. More than half of this has been 
made by steam shovels in the dry, while the rest has been 
made by steam dredges. The steam dredges have been 
working in the softer material in the harbors and channels 
near the ocean on each side of the Isthmus. 

All the plans have been made and all the work[done with a 
view to the construction of the lock canal. It is true that a 
large part of the work, until recently, would have had to be 
done for a sea-level canal, except for the expensive change or 
relocation of the Panama Railroad, and the excavations for 
the locks and for the spillway of the great Gatun Dam, 
which is the key of the lock type. I presume it would be 
difficult to say how many millions of dollars have now been 
spent that would be thrown away, were the canal to be 
changed from a lock to a sea-level type, but certainly fifteen 
million dollars is not an overestimate of the amount. 

With a plan settled and the organization becoming more 
and more perfect, and the work of excavation going on at an 
unexpected rate of progress, suddenly those responsible for 



AND STATE PAPERS 127 

the work are confronted with a newspaper war upon the 
type of the canal, and a discussion in the Senate of the 
United States, seriously suggesting a change from the lock 
type solemnly adopted by law two years ago, to a sea-level 
canal. What has given rise to this renewed discussion of 
the type of the canal and this assumption that the question 
of the type is still really open for consideration and settle- 
ment ? Three circumstances, and only three, that I can 
trace. 

The first is that a newspaper correspondent on the Isthmus, 
while detained by a washout on the railroad in one of the 
heavy rains that are frequent on the Isthmus, heard that the 
rock and earth which is now being deposited in great quan- 
tities to form the Gatun Dam, had, under the effect of the 
flood, sunk out of sight into a subterranean lake, and cabled 
to the United States that the whole structure of the Gatun 
Dam had given way. 

The second circumstance was that the estimates of the 
engineers in the actual construction of the work and the 
expenditure of the money from time to time showed quite 
clearly that the cost of the construction of the lock 
type of canal would be at least twice that which had been 
estimated as its cost by the minority of the board of consulting 
engineers. 

The third circumstance was that under the present efficient 
organization, with the use of steam shovels and dredges, the 
amount of excavation has considerably exceeded that which 
had been anticipated. 

In this wise, the argument in favor of a change from the 
lock canal to the sea-level canal apparently is given great 
additional force because it is said that by the sinking and 
giving way of the Gatun Dam, the indispensable feature of 
the lock type, it has been demonstrated that the lock type is 
unsafe, dangerous, and impossible. 

Second, it is said that the argument which has been made 
in favor of the lock type of canal on the ground of economy 
is shown to be unfounded because the real cost of the lock 



128 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

type of canal is demonstrated by actual construction to be 
equal to, or in excess of, the estimated cost of the sea-level 
canal. 

Third, il is said that the argument that the sea-level canal 
would be a great many years in process of construction, 
which was vigorously advanced, is now shown to be erroneous 
by the ureal increase in the daily, monthly, and yearly 
excavation as compared with the total amount of excavation 
needed in the sea-level type. 

I propose in a general way to examine these three reasons 
to see how much real weight they have. 

First, as to the sinking of the Gatun Dam. The report 
of the newspaper correspondent, like so many other state- 
ments made with respect to a matter two thousand miles 
away, under the influence of a desire to be sensational and 
stall ling, was founded purely on imagination. The only 
foundation for the statement was that in a comparatively 
small stretch on the site of the dam, perhaps two hundred 
feel across, some rough material had been piled up on the 
upward side of the dam, and there had been excavated 
immediately back of this pile or dump a lot of material from 
an old French diversion channel; that the water accumu- 
lated above this dump in the very heavy rains; that the water 
behind the dump and the material there had been taken out; 
and that there was a slide down into the cavity that had been 
made just back of the dump. The slide could not have 
been more than one hundred feet. The whole mass was not 
more than two hundred feet across, and on a personal 
examination, for I was there, it was evidently nothing more 
than an ordinary slide, such as frequently occurs in the 
construction of railroad banks and other fills when they are 
nol properly balanced, and are without the proper slope. 
The material on the inside of the dam, that which is to be 
impermeable and puddled, has not yet been deposited at all. 
This was a mere deposit on the edge of the bottom of the 
dam upstream. The dam at that point, when constructed, 
will be nearly half a mile wide. The insignificance of the 



AND STATE PAPERS 129 

circumstance, when one takes into consideration the whole 
size of the dam, and the relation of this particular material 
to the entire dam, is apparent. It appears that there is clay 
in the material taken out of the excavation at Culebra which 
is slippery and upon which other material will slide if the 
pressure is unequal and the usual precautions against sliding 
are not taken. But this has always been known, and is true 
of most clays. It is not a danger that can not be provided 
against, and, indeed, the shape and form and exact method 
of building the dam are for the very purpose of producing the 
stability needed, and of avoiding any danger of a slide due 
to a lack of proper balance and weight in the material put 
into the dam. 

President Roosevelt, in view of the widespread report as 
to the failure of the dam, concluded to send a competent 
board of engineers to find out whether anything had occurred 
on the Isthmus thai should lend to a change from that type 
of canal which had the Gatun Dam as its chief feature. The 
board was made up of Mr. Steams of Boston, and Mr. 
Randolph, the chief engineer of the ( 'Imago Drainage ( 'anal, 
both of whom had been on the original minority board; Mr. 
Freeman, who had visited the canal two years before with a 
view to ascertaining whether there was a proper foundation 
for the locks at the Gatun Dam; and four other engineers, 
who had not given their opinion before as to the proper type 
of canal. These were the chief engineer of the Reclamation 
Service, Mr. Davis, who has had wide experience in the 
construction of dams and locks; Mr. Schuyler, one of the 
two or three great engineers of the West Coast, who has 
written a text-book on the subject of earthen dams and their 
proper construction; Mr. Hazen, perhaps, the greatest 
authority on filtration in the country; and Captain Allen, 
a hydraulic engineer of high standing in Chicago. Their 
report was unanimous. They decided that the dam as pro- 
jected was heavier and more expensive than it need be. They 
reduced the cost and the amount of material in it. They 
reported that the lock type of canal was entirely feasible, and 



130 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

safe as projected; and they pointed out and emphasized the 
difficulties of the proposed sea-level canal. 

The report of this board has been attacked on the ground 
that it was a packed jury, and that two of its members had 
already expressed their opinion in recommending the lock 
type of canal as part of the minority board. This is utterly 
unjust. It is quite true that the two gentlemen named had 
expressed their opinion in favor of a lock type of canal and 
had recommended the plan that was adopted, but it is also 
true that the of the board had not so committed themselves, 
and there was not the slightest reason why, if they differed 
from the other two, they should not express their opinion. 
Two of the old board were taken for the reason that they 
were as competent engineers as the country afforded and 
knew well the grounds on which the lock type had been 
originally adopted. It is entirely proper, when it is claimed 
that a judgment should be set aside on the ground of newly 
discovered evidence, that at least part of the same court 
should sit to hear what that new evidence is and pass 
upon its weight with reference to the previous judgment. 
The truth is that the judgment of this new board of engineers 
ought to remove all doubt as to the safety of the Gatun Dam 
from the minds of the interested public. But engineers are 
like members of other professions, and I presume w r e may 
expect from time to time, as the construction of the canal goes 
Dii, further attacks upon the feasibility, safety, and usefulness 
of the type adopted after so much care. 

Not only has this board determined on the entire safety 
and practicability of the Gatun Dam, but the army engineers, 
Colonel Goethals and his assistants, who are in charge of the 
actual work, are perfectly certain that the Gatun Dam can 
be and w ill be made as safe as the adjoining hills in resisting 
the pressure of the water of the lake against it and in main- 
taining it there for purposes of navigation. These army 
engineers are not responsible for the type of the canal. They 
did not take hold of the work until after the type had been 
settled by act of Congress, and they had no preconceived 



AND STATE PAPERS 131 

notions in respect to the matter when they took charge and 
assumed that intimate relation to the whole project which 
makes their judgment of great value. 

Mr. Frederic P. Stearns is one of the greatest authorities 
in the world on the construction of dams. He has built a 
dam at the Wachusetts Reservoir of the Metropolitan Board 
of Public Works in Massachusetts, upon foundations much 
less favorable for stability than those of the Gatun Dam, 
and the water is now standing at 65 feet in the reservoir. 
The dam has been tested, and his judgment has the benefit, 
therefore, of actual test and verification. 

The judgment of the engineers in 1906 as to the sufficiency 
of the foundation upon which to construct the Gatun Dam 
was based on borings made with wash drills into the material 
underneath the proposed dam site, and material was washed 
from depths varying from 20 to 250 feet below the surface. 
The wash of the water affected the material to such an extent 
as to give a wrong impression regarding some of it. The 
borings seemed to show that at considerable depth, that is, 
from 200 to 250 feet down, there was loose sand and gravel 
such as to permit the free flow of an underground stream. 
Since these borings were taken, pits have been sunk that 
make possible the removal of the material in place so that it 
can be seen just exactly what the foundation consists of, 
and it turns out that, instead of there being loose sand and 
gravel at the bottom, there appears to be a conglomerate of 
sand, clay, and gravel so united as to require a pick to separ- 
ate it, and entirely impervious to water. In other words, a 
full examination of the foundations of the Gatun Dam 
strengthens greatly the opinion of those who held that there 
was a foundation of a blanket 200 feet in depth entirely 
impervious to water, below the surface, and substantially 
incompressible. 

A most interesting exhibit can be seen at the headquarters 
of the eommission at Culebra, of the various layers of 
material which form the foundations under the Gatun 
Dam, and when they are examined, the truth of the assertion 



132 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

thai this makes an excellent foundation can be readily 
understood. 

The second circumstance is with reference to the cost of 
the work. The estimate of the cost of the canal, exclusive 
of the interest during construction, sanitation, and expense 
of Zone government, and the $50,000,000 paid Panama and 
the French company, was $139,705,200. The present 
estimate of the cost of the canal as now projected, exclusive 
of the same items, is $297,766,000, or a grand total of 
$375,000,000. The increase arises, first, from the fact that 
the yardage or excavation to be made was 50 per cent. 
underestimated. This was due, first, to insufficient surveys, 
and second, to changes of plan. These changes of plan 
involved a widening of the canal, for a distance of four thou- 
sand feet, from 500 feet to 1,000 feet in width, just below the 
(iatun locks on the north side, in order to furnish a wider 
and more commodious place for vessels anchoring before 
entering the locks. The canal has also been widened for 
five miles from 200 feet to 300 feet across the bottom; this 
in the Culebra cut. Again, the material supposed to be easy 
of dredging turns out to be in many places more of rock than 
was supposed, and the average cost of excavation has been 
increased generally about 20 per cent. In addition to that, 
the locks as originally projected were 900 feet usable length 
and 95 feet in width. They have been increased now, in 
response to a request from our Navy Department, from 900 
feel to 1,000 feet usable length and from 95 feet to 110 feet in 
width. This greatly increases the amount of concrete, greatly 
widens the gates, and greatly increases the whole cost of the 
locks at both ends of the canal. Then, too, it was thought 
wise not to follow the minority report which contemplated 
dams in i mediately on the shore of the Pacific at La Boca, 
in Sosa Hill, but to move them back to Miraflores and San 
Pedro Miguel, some four miles or more from the shore. 
This was chiefly done for military reasons, in order to take 
the lock construction out of sight of an enemy approaching 
the canal on the Bay of Panama. 



AND STATE PAPERS 133 

All these changes were substantial increases in the amount 
of work to be done, which, taken with the increased unit 
price, explains the discrepancy between the estimate and the 
actual expenditure. Much money was expended in the 
construction and repair of buildings in which the employees 
of the canal lived. Much money, not included in the 
estimate, was expended for the purpose of making their lives 
more enjoyable while on the Isthmus. The wages per day 
are higher than those which were estimated. Colonel 
Goethals has submitted a detailed statement showing exactly 
where the difference is between the original estimate and 
the actual cost. This has been examined by the present 
board of engineers, who report that in their judgment the 
estimate presented by Colonel Goethals is an outside figure, 
and that the cost will probably be less for the present type 
of canal than $297,000,000, as estimated. 

The advocates of the sea-level canal point to the fact that 
the estimate by the Consulting Board in 190(5 of the cost of 
the sea-level canal was $247,000, 000, plus cost of sanitation, 
government, and the $50,000,000 paid Panama and the 
French company, or fifty millions less than the admitted 
cost of the lock type. They assume, therefore, that the 
difference in cost originally advanced as an argument against 
a sea-level canal has now been refuted. The defect of this 
argument is that the same circumstances that have increased 
the cost of the lock type of canal would increase the actual 
cost of a sea-level canal. Much of the work that has been 
done — indeed, a very large part of it — ■ is work that would 
have had to he done for a sea-u-vel canal, and we are fur- 
nished now by Colonel Goethals with an estimate of what the 
sea-level canal would cost, in the light of the actual cost of 
the work and unit prices on the Isthmus. This would be 
$477,601,000 without cost of sanitation or government and 
exclusive of the original $50,000,000 payment. When the 
loss of interest and loss of revenue by delay is taken into 
consideration, the cost is easily increased $200,000,000 be- 
yond the cost of the lock type of canal, so that the difference 



134 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

between the cost of the lock type and the sea-level canal is 
shown by actual construction on the Isthmus to be greater 
than was estimated when the lock type of canal was selected 
as the proper one. 

Third, the date of completion for the lock type of canal 
has been fixed as the 1st of January, 1915. I hope that it 
may be considerably before that. At the rate of excavation 
now going on in the Culebra cut, it could probably be com- 
pleted in less than three years, but the difficulty is that as the 
cut grows deeper, the number of shovels that can be worked 
must necessarily be decreased. Therefore, the excavation 
per day, per month, and per year must grow less. Hence it 
is not safe to base the estimate of time on a division of the 
total amount to be excavated by the yearly excavation at 
present. Then, too, the Gatun Dam and locks and the 
manufacture and adjustment of the gates may take a longer 
time than the excavation itself, so that it is wiser to count on 
the date set. The enthusiastic supporters of the sea-level 
canal, basing their calculation on the amount of material now 
being excavated, and upon the total amount to be excavated, 
for a sea-level canal, reach the conclusion that the sea-level 
canal could be constructed in a comparatively short time as 
compared with the estimate of twelve or fifteen years made at 
the time of the decision in favor of the lock type. They 
have fallen into the error, already pointed out, of assuming 
that the present rate of excavation could continue as the work 
of building the sea-level canal went on, which in the case 
of the sea-level canal is even more erroneous and misleading 
than in the case of the lock canal, for the reason that the 
construction, below the forty-foot level above the sea down 
to the level of forty feet below the sea, is work of the most 
difficult character, more than half of it always under water, 
and necessitating either pumping or dredging in rock and 
working in a narrow space, which greatly reduces the possible 
pate i't' excavation. 

It is said that new methods of removing rock under water 
are available so as greatly to reduce the price and the time. 



AND STATE PAPERS 135 

I shall take up this statement a little later, but it is sufficient 
now to say that these methods are in use on the Isthmus, 
and that the actual employment of them in the character of 
material that exists on the line of the canal completely refutes 
the claim that they can accomplish anything more than, 
or as much as, the excavation in the dry. 

Then, too, in this calculation of time, a third great error 
of the sea-level enthusiasts is the failure to take into con- 
sideration the time actually needed to construct the Gamboa 
Dam to retain the waters of the Chagres River and the other 
dams and the great diversion channels that would absolutely 
have to be built before the sea-level excavation could be 
carried on. The Gamboa Dam as projected is a masonry 
dam, 180 feet above sea level, with a level of the water 170 
feet against the dam and above the bed rock of the stream, 
and of a length 4,500 feet along the top. It would be the 
highest dam known in the world and its construction would 
have to be of the most careful character, and would take an 
indeterminate time. It has never been definitely settled 
that there is at the only available site a foundation suitable 
for such a dam. 

I have thus examined the circumstances relied upon by 
the present advocates of the sea-level canal to show that the 
known conditions are different to-day from those that influ- 
enced the selection of the lock type. I have not gone into 
the matter in detail, but the records will bear out my general 
statements and show that not in the slightest respect has the 
argument been changed by newly discovered facts in favor 
of the sea-level canal. 

The memory of the reading public, however, is not very 
long. and. relying on this fact, the opponents of the lock canal 
do not hesitate to bring out again, as if newly discovered, the 
same old arguments that failed to convince when the issue 
was fresh and the supposedly final decision was given. We 
are again met with the statements of gentlemen who claim 
to be and really are familial- with the steamship business, 
that mariners would prefer a sea-level canal and would use 



136 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

a lock canal with reluctance. With a great show of enthu- 
siasm and a chain of reasoning as if newly thought out, the 
ease with which vessels can be navigated on the level is held 
up in contrast with the difficulties involved in lifting them 
eighty-five feet at one side of the Isthmus and lowering them 
the same distance on the other. Such an argument always 
proceeds on the hidden premise that the question whether 
we should have a lock or a sea-level canal is a mere matter 
of preference freely open to our choice, and wholly without 
regard to the real difficulties involved in the construction 
of a sea-level canal such as the discussions of the present 
day seem to assume a sea-level canal will be. 

We hear much of the Straits of Panama described as 
a broad passage of from 400 to GOO feet in width across the 
bottom, 40 to 45 feet in depth, and piercing the Isthmus with 
a volume of water sufficient to do away with all difficulty 
from rapid currents produced by the water of swollen tropical 
streams, or cross currents resulting from the discharge of 
such streams into the canal from heights ranging all the way 
from ten feet to fifty feet above the level of the water. Such a 
comparison is utterly misleading. The only sea-level canal 
that has been projected with respect to which estimates of 
any substantial and reliable kind have been made is a canal, 
one-half the length of which is 150 feet across the bottom and 
the other half of which is 200 feet across the bottom. It is 
a canal that for twenty miles, from the point where the 
Chagres River and the canal converge, to Gatun, has four 
limes the curvature of the Suez Canal, and in which at 
Hood stages, under any plan that has been devised for pre- 
venting the destruction of the canal by the flood waters of 
the Chagres River and the other streams emptying into that 
river, there will be a current of nearly three miles an hour. 
Such a current in the Suez Canal, with one-fourth of the 
curvatures, makes the steering of large vessels dangerous, 
and in this canal, with its great curvature, would make the 
passage of large vessels impossible. 

The lock canal as projected has a width at the bottom of 



AND STATE PAPERS 137 

300 feet for about 25 per cent, of its length, of from 500 to 
800 feet for 50 per cent., and of 1,000 feet, or the entire lake 
width, for the remainder. With such widths the curvature, 
of course, is immaterial. 

In the projected sea-level canal, it would be impossible for 
vessels safely to pass one another at any speed at all. There- 
fore one vessel would have to tie up while the other went by. 
This fact would greatly reduce the speed with which a vessel 
could pass through the sea-level canal, and the greater the 
business, the slower would be the passage. As the tonnage 
increased, therefore, the lock canal of the projected type, in 
spite of the time taken going through the locks to the 85-foot 
level and descending from that level, in case of large steamers, 
would furnish a quicker passage. As business increased, 
the time taken in going through the sea-level canal and the 
danger to the vessel would be very considerably greater than 
in the lock canal. The danger of accidents and of the 
destruction of the locks, if certain machinery is used and 
certain precautions are taken in the warping of the vessels into 
and out of the locks, will be practically nothing. We are 
able to gage this by the infrequency of dangerous accidents 
at the "Soo" locks, in which the business is enormous and 
the size of the locks through which the vessels go is but a 
small percentage less than that of the locks projected at 
Panama. The devices for preventing the outflow of the 
water in case of a destruction of the upper gates are complete, 
and in the opinion of many engineers unnecessarily elaborate. 

Mr. Bunau-Varilla and Mr. Granger and Mr. Lindon 
Bates have all lent the weight of their voices in denunciation 
of the present lock type of the canal. In denouncing the 
type that is under construction, they always compare it with 
a sea-level canal of a width from 300 to GOO feet; when the 
actual canal projected for the sea-level is only 150 feet across 
the bottom in one-half the length, and 200 feet the other half. 
They always point with severest criticism to the instability 
and experimental character of the Gatun Dam, but never 
refer to the Gamboa Dam, which is an essential part of the 



138 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

sea-level plan, and which in its measurements and in the 
height of the water behind it exceeds the proportions of any 
dam in the world. In addition to this the sea-level canal 
involves the construction of three or four other dams in order 
to turn hack the water of streams entering the Chagres Valley 
over the height of land into other valleys away from the 
canal. One of these dams is 75 feet high by 4,000 feet in 
length; another 2,800 feet long; another 1,200 feet; and 
another <S()() feet. No one knows what the character of the 
foundation is for these dams thus projected in the sea-leve 
plan. No one is able to estimate the cost involved in their 
construction, because they are now far away from the rail- 
road and considerable expense would be involved in deliver- 
ing material for their construction. None of these difficulties 
connected with the making of the sea-level canal are ever 
mentioned in the discussion of the comparative merits of the 
| ) resent lock-type canal and the sea-level canal as projected. 
We can only approximately arrive at the cost of a sea-level 
canal such as that suggested in the articles of Mr. Granger 
and Mr. Bunau-Varilla in this wise: Colonel Goethals's 
estimate of the cost of the sea-level canal exactly as pro- 
jected is $500,000,000; that is, $477,000,000 with the 
addition of interest and other items that might bring it up 
to $500,000,000. This does not include the cost of sanitation, 
of the Zone government, or the $50,000,000 originally paid. 
An estimate was made of the additional cost by the Board 
of Consulting Engineers of widening the sea-level canal 100 
feet. That would make a canal, half of it 250 feet wide, 
and half of it 300 feet wide. It was said it would cost from 
$86,000,000 to $100,000,000. Considering now the dis- 
crepancy between the estimate and the actual cost of 
the sea-level canal, that is, between $247,000,000 and 
$477,000,000, it is certainly not exaggerating to say that 
the cost of a sea-level canal 300 feet wide from end to end 
would involve an expenditure of not less than $050,000,000 
and probably $700,000,000, and this without including the 
cost of sanitation, of government, or the $50,000,000 originally 



AND STATE PAPERS 139 

paid. As already said, an outside estimate for the present 
cost of the lock type of canal is $297,000,000, exclusive of the 
cost of sanitation and of government and of the $50,000,000 
originally paid, or $375,000,000 including everything, as 
against $750,000,000 for such a canal as that advocated by 
Mr. Bunau-Varilla or Mr. Granger. 

I have already commented on the utter impossibility of 
calculating the time that it would take to construct the sea- 
level canal. No estimate has been made of the time it would 
take to construct the Gamboa Dam or other dams and the 
great diversion channels needed to keep the Chagres River 
out of a sea-level canal, and no estimate has been made as 
to the additional time that would be required for the exca- 
vations below the sea level and the pumping needed to keep 
the canal prism in a condition for such excavation. Another 
difficulty about the sea-level canal, but one rarely referred 
to, is the obstacle to its construction in the Black Swamp 
between Gatun and Bohio. This would probably necessitate 
retaining walls or the draining of the swamp with such an 
extended area as to make the task a huge one. 

Of the clitics of the present type of the canal, Mr. Bunau- 
Varilla and Mr. Lindon Bates were advisers of the consulting 
board of thirteen engineers appointed to recommend types 
of a canal. That board divided as between the 85-foot canal, 
which was adopted, and the sea-level canal 150 feet wide 
for half of the distance and 200 feet wide for the other half; 
but they all, whether sea-level or lock-type advocates, united 
in rejecting the plans of Mr. Bunau-Varilla and Mr. Bates. 
Those gentlemen are now engaged in criticizing the Gatun 
Dam and the locks that form part of the approved and 
adopted type; but if their plans as they recommend them 
are examined, it will be found that they contemplated dams 
and locks more in number, with a great deal more uncer- 
tainly as to the foundation, than the Gatun Dam and the 
dams atMiraflores and at Pedro Miguel in the present lock- 
type. It will be found that in the original plan of Mr. Bunau- 
Varilla he projected a canal that should have a high level of 



140 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

at least 130 feet to be reached by a series of locks, and that 
Mr. Bates had a series of lakes to be reached by locks quite 
like thai of the Gatun Dam, although the lakes were not so 
extended and the locks not so high. Under these circum- 
stances, the criticism of these gentlemen in asserting great 
danger from earthquakes and other causes to the Gatun 
Dam and the locks of the adopted type may be received 
with a measure of caution. 

Mr. Bunau-Varilla's chief argument in reference to the 
speed and ease and economy with which his type of canal 
could be constructed, ultimately resulting in a sea-level 
canal, is based on the facility with which a certain Lobnitz 
process and machine for dredging rock under water can 
be successfully carried on. This is also one of the bases 
for the proposition of Mr. Granger that a sea-level canal can 
be easily constructed. In addition to that, Mr. Granger 
has invented a machine for the elevation of material in water, 
to be carried by gravity through a flume a long distance. It 
has never been tested on any great work of construction, and 
rests wholly on theory. 

The Lobnitz method of excavating rock under water is 
on trial to-day on the Pacific side of the Isthmus at Panama, 
and the result of the work there confirms the judgment of 
practical engineers elsewhere that the machine will work 
in comparatively soft rock with thin laminations, but that 
it will not work in hard rock or in rock in which the strata 
are widely separated, of which there is much to be excavated 
in constructing the Panama Canal. In other words, the 
arguments of both these gentlemen advocating the Straits 
of Panama are either based on theory without practical test 
of the usefulness of the processes they recommend, or, when 
practical test has been given, the process has failed to come 
up to what is claimed for it by these advocates. 

Mr. Bunau-Varilla early proclaimed that the heavy 
machinery of the Americans in the steam shovels at the 
Isthmus was not accomplishing nearly as much as the lighter 
machinery of the French. Now we have gone far bevond 



AND STATE PAPERS 141 

any record of the French in the excavation in the dry per day, 
per month, and per year. The lack of soundness in Mr. 
Bunau-Yarilla's conclusions is thus made apparent. 

The facts to-day are the same as they were when the lock 
type was adopted, namely, that it would take at least 
$200,000,000 more of money and at least five years more of 
time to construct the sea-level type of canal 150 to 200 feet 
in width; that the canal when constructed would be danger- 
ous for the passage of the larger vessels; and that the lock 
type of canal constructed at $200,000,000 less in cost and 
five years less in time will be a better canal, a safer canal, 
and one in which the time of passage for large vessels will 
be even less than in the sea-level type. 

For these reasons the administration is proceeding to con- 
struct the canal on the type authorized and directed by Con- 
gress, and the criticisms of gentlemen who predicate all their 
arguments on theory and not upon practical tests, who 
institute comparisons between the present type of canal and 
the sea-level type of 300 to GOO feet in width that never has 
been or ''will be on sea or land," cannot disturb the even 
tenor of those charged with the responsibility of constructing 
the canal, and will only continue to afford to persons who 
do not understand the situation and are not familiar with the 
history of the canal and of the various plans proposed for 
the canal, an unfounded sensation of regret and alarm that 
the Government is pursuing a foolish and senseless course. 
Meantime the canal will be built and completed on or before 
the 1st of January, 1915, and those who are now its severest 
critics will be glad to have their authorship of recent articles 
forgotten. 



XV 
JUDICIAL DECISIONS AS AN ISSUE IN POLITICS * 

I\ST summer at Hot Springs, after the Convention and 
-J before the electoral campaign had been actively 
begun, Mr. McClure asked me to furnish him two articles 
for his magazine, to be printed after the election. I sug- 
gested to him that if I were defeated he might not desire the 
articles, but he said he would run the risk. One subject 
which he proposed was my labor decisions, and the article 
that follows is a compliance with the promise I then made. 

J believe it is true that I am the only successful candidate 
for the Presidency who ever had extended judicial experi- 
ence. Mr. Van Buren had been a surrogate or probate 
judge early in his career, and Andrew Jackson, I believe, 
did serve as a judge of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, 
but it was a very unimportant part of his life, and his service 
did not bring into the issues of his campaigns any discussion 
of his work as a judge. 

Judge Parker, so far as I know, is the only other candidate 
who had been for any number of years on the Bench; and 
while there was some reference in the campaign to his judicial 
opinions, they did not involve any issues made in the platform, 
and were not given special prominence on the stump or in 
political editorials. 

In 189G the judgment of the Supreme Court in the income- 
tax ease was made a subject of heated discussion, and sug- 
gestions that the court might be increased if one party was 
successful, so as to bring about a reversal of the decision, 
were not wanting. Still, I think it may be truly said that in 
no camp aign since the beginning of the government has 

+ This article was prepared by Mr. Taft prior to his inauguration as President of 
the United States, and was published in McClwe's Magazine, June, 1909. 
[Reprinted by permission of McClure's Magazine.] 

142 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 143 

there been directly involved as an issue a question con- 
sidered and decided by one of the Presidential candidates as 
a judge. 

It is not the first time in my family that a judicial decision 
has played an important part in the political fortunes of the 
judge deciding it. While my father was a judge of the 
Superior Court of Cincinnati, the question arose whether 
the school board of the city had the power by resolution to 
change the rule under which schools were opened in the 
morning by the reading of the King James version of the 
Bible. Two of the judges of the Superior Court held that 
this was beyond the power of the school board, while my 
father, the third judge, dissented. The case proceeded to 
the Supreme Court, and that court, in a unanimous judg- 
ment, approved the views of my father as a dissenting judge 
in the court below. Notwithstanding this result, in three 
gubernatorial campaigns my father was defeated in Repub- 
lican conventions on the ground of his decision in the Bible 
case; but it never fell to his lot to be nominated as a party 
candidate and to find it necessary to go upon the stump to 
explain or defend his decisions. I think I may say that my 
experience in this respect lias been truly exceptional. 

To make the controversy clear, il is necessary to refer to 
the efforts made by the American Federation of Labor 
and the railroad labor organizations to secure legislation 
against what they claimed to be the abuses of the power of 
injunction by courts of equity in labor disputes. Mr. 
Gompers and the American Federation of Labor were 
much more radical and drastic in their demands than were 
the railroad organizations. Mr. Gompers demanded the 
passage of a bill containing two sections: The first section 
provided that no injunction should issue from a court of 
equity except to protect property rights from irreparable 
injury where there was not adequate remedy at law, and 
contained the proviso, which embodied the whole intent of 
the section, that injury to business of a complainant in such 
labor disputes should not be considered an injury to property 



144 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

rights; and the second section contained a provision which 
in effect legalized the secondary boycott and rendered immune 
from criminal or civil prosecution or injunctive process those 
taking part in such a boycott. This was known as the 
Pearre Bill. President Roosevelt and the members of 
his Cabinet whom he called into consultation, of whom I 
was one, were quite willing to concede that the power of the 
issuing of injunctions in the form of temporary restraining 
orders, without notice to the party, affected, had been abused 
in some cases by Federal judges, and that it might be wise 
to take away the power of issuing such orders without notice 
and restore the law to the condition in wJiich it had been 
when the Federal Judiciary Act of 1789 was put in force. 
At that time no temporary injunction could issue without a 
notice to the party affected and an opportunity to be heard. 
A bill to effect such a change was introduced and probably 
would have passed if Mr. Gompers and the American 
Federation of Labor had been willing to accept it as a 
compromise. 

At the head of a delegation of labor-union men, Mr. 
Gompers visited the President. The President told him 
very plainly that he would not and did not favor the bill 
known as the Pearre Bill, for he thought that the power 
of injunction ought to be exercised quite as much against 
lawless workingmen as against lawless capitalists. 

Thus the issue was made in the Congressional campaign 
of 190G, and Mr. Gompers summoned assistance from his 
fellows of the American Federation of Labor to defeat Mr. 
Littlefield in Maine, Mr. Cannon in Illinois, and a great 
many other Congressmen who were put upon the so-called 
'black list" because they declined to consent to the passage 
of the Pearre Bill, and refused to withdraw the protecting 
influence of injunctive process from a man's business rights 
and to legalize boycotts. The electoral campaign carried 
on by Mr. Gompers was not successful in defeating any 
Congressman whom he had blacklisted, and into whose 
district he went for the purpose of defeating him. Of 



AND STATE PAPERS 145 

course in each district many other issues played a part, and 
it is difficult to tell how much influence Mr. Gompers exerted 
in taking away votes from the successful candidate. He 
renewed his efforts in the next Congress, but without 
avail. 

Then came the presidential conventions of the two parties. 
Mr. Gompers appeared before the Committee on Resolutions 
of the Republican Convention, and demanded the approval of 
the Pearre Bill or its equivalent. The President and I 
favored the following resolution : 

INJUNCTIONS 

"We declare for such an amendment of the statutes of 
procedure in the Federal courts with respect to the use of 
the writ of injunction as will, on the one hand, prevent the 
summary issue of such orders without proper consideration, 
and, on the other, will preserve undiminished the power of the 
courts to enforce their process, to the end that justice may 
be done at all times and to all parties. " 

A great many of the delegates were opposed to any resolu- 
tion on the subject, regarding it as an attack upon the courts; 
but finally, as a compromise, the following resolution was 
adopted in the platform: 

COURT PROCEDURE 

"The Republican party will uphold at all times the auth- 
ority and integrity of the courts. State and Federal, and will 
ever insist that their powers to enforce their process and to pro- 
tect life, liberty, and property shall be preserved inviolate. 
We believe,however. that the rules of procedure in the Federal 
courts with respect to the issuance of the writ of injunction 
should be more accurately defined by statute, and that no 
injunction or temporary restraining order should be issued 
without notice, except where irreparable injury would result 
from delay, in which case a speedy hearing thereafter should 
be granted." 



146 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

It 'will be observed that the Republican Convention 
declined to take away the power to issue temporary restrain- 
ing orders without notice, but preferred to hedge the power 
about with a statutory declaration of the instances in which 
they might issue, and offered an opportunity for limiting 
their life or duration by statute to such a short time as would 
necessitate a hearing within a few days. In this respect the 
convention did not go as far as Mr. Roosevelt and I were 
willing to go. Mr. Gompers and his associates expressed 
dissatisfaction with the action of the Republican Convention, 
and then went to Denver, where, after the fullest discussion, 
the resolution which was adopted read as follows: 

LABOR AND INJUNCTIONS 

"The courts of justice are the bulwark of our liberties, 
and we yield to none in our purpose to maintain their dignity. 
Our party has given to the Bench a long line of distinguished 
judges, who have added to the respect and confidence in 
which this department must be jealously maintained. We 
resent the attempt of the Republican party to raise a false 
issue respecting the judiciary. It is an unjust reflection 
upon a great body of our citizens to assume that they lack 
respect for the courts. 

"It is the function of the courts to interpret the laws which 
the people create, and if the laws appear to work economic, 
social, or political injustice, it is our duty to change them. 
The only basis upon which the integrity of our courts can 
stand is that of unswerving justice and protection of life, 
personal liberty, and property. If judicial processes may 
be abused, we should guard them against abuse. 

"Experience has proved the necessity of a modification of 
the present law relating to injunctions, and we reiterate 
the pledge of our National platforms of 1896 and 1904 in 
favor of the measure which passed the United States 
Senate in 1890, but which a Republican Congress has ever 
since refused to enact, relating to contempts in Federal courts 
and providing for trial by jury in cases of indirect contempt. 



AND STATE PAPERS 147 

"Questions of judicial practice have arisen especially in 
connection with industrial disputes. We deem that the 
parties to all judicial proceedings should be treated with 
rigid impartiality, and that injunctions should not be issued 
in any cases in which injunctions would not issue if no 
industrial dispute were involved." 

I have been informed that the resolution was drafted by 
Mr. Gompers and was passed exactly as drafted. 

In one of Mr. Roosevelt's letters written during the cam- 
paign, he invited attention to an article published by Mr. 
Gompers in the American Federationist in defense of what 
he had done in supporting the Democratic candidate, and 
pointed out that in that article Mr. Gompers said, or plainly 
intimated, that Mr. Bryan was in complete accord with the 
attitude taken by the American Federation of Labor before 
the last two Congresses, and that this necessarily involved 
not only the abolition of the use of the injunction in labor 
disputes where only the business of the plaintiff was to be 
injured, but also the legalizing of the secondary boycott. 

Neither Mr. Gompers nor Mr. Bryan ever attempted to 
answer the query put by Mr. Roosevelt as to whether this 
statement was true. Read in the light of this explanation, 
we can see what the resolution of the Denver Convention 
was intended to mean. The key necessary to understand 
the resolution was the principle of equity procedure advanced 
by Mr. Gompers and his legal counsel, that the right of a 
man to pursue a lawful business is not a property or pecuniary 
right which a court of equity would ever, according to proper 
rules of its procedure, issue an injunction to protect. The 
question has been distinctly passed upon by dozens of courts, 
and Mr. Gompers's proposition has not received the slightest 
support except in one dissenting opinion. 

The instances in which courts of equity, both in England 
and in this country, have issued injunctions to protect busi- 
ness rights are so many as to be overwhelming. But assum- 
ing Mr. Gompers's proposition of law to be correct, namely, 



148 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that no injunction could ever issue merely to protect the 
rights of business, as distinguished from property rights, then 
the meaning of the resolution of the Democratic platform 
becomes clear. It resolves that injunctions ought not to 
issue in labor disputes under any circumstances except 
those in which they would issue in other disputes, and as, 
according to Mr. Gompers, they would never issue in other 
disputes to protect business rights, they ought to be prohibited 
from being issued to protect a man's business in labor 
disputes. 

A boycott is ordinarily not directed toward anything but 
a man's business. It is intended to injure his business and 
is well adapted to do so. If, therefore, by the resolution as 
interpreted above, all injuries to business and confined to 
business alone, and not reaching to rights in material prop- 
erty, were excluded, it would have the effect of limiting the 
recourse of one injured by a boycott to the inadequate 
remedy of a suit for damages, and thus in an indirect way 
the object of the American Federation of Labor in the 
Pearre Bill would be accomplished. 

There w'as another and a very important issue in respect 
to which the Democratic platform by its expressed declaration 
and the Republican platform by its silence left no doubt, and 
that was the question whether in punishments for contempt 
in all classes of cases, except those committed in the presence 
of the court, punishment should not be inflicted by the 
court until after a conviction in a trial by jury. 

I have thus defined certain so-called labour issues of the 
campaign, in order that the relevancy of my decisions may 
become apparent. At the risk of being tedious, I shall 
attempt to state shortly what those decisions were. 

The first one was rendered by me when I was a judge of the 
Superior Court of Cincinnati, a State court of general juris- 
diction, where I sat under appointment and subsequent 
elect ion for three years. The case was a suit for damages 
by Moores & Company, lime-dealers, against the Brick- 
layers' Union of Cincinnati. 



AND STATE PAPERS 149 

The undisputed facts shown were these: Parker Brothers 
were a firm of boss bricklayers. They had quarreled with 
a Bricklayers' Union. The Bricklayers' Union had with- 
drawn its members from the employ of Parker Brothers and 
had declared a strike against the firm, and had threatened 
all material-men that it would boycott any one of them who 
furnished material to Parker Brothers. Moores & Com- 
pany were lime-dealers and sold Parker Brothers lime for 
cash. This was discovered by a walking delegate of the 
Union, and a boycott was declared against Moores & Com- 
pany, who were thereby prevented from enjoying the profit 
of a number of valuable contracts, and whose business suf- 
fered severely in other ways. 

I sat as the trial judge, and charged the jury that upon this 
state of fact Moores & Company were entitled to recover as 
damages the loss that had been inflicted by the boycott of the 
Bricklayers' Union. The jury immediately returned a ver- 
dict for $2,500. A motion for a new trial was made, and I 
reserved the motion, as I had the power to do. to the general 
term of the Superior Court for the consideration of three 
judges, including myself, and there I delivered the opinion 
of the court, and in this opinion, which was an elaborate one, 
I attempted to explain \\hal was the illegality of a boycott. 
If I were writing the opinion again. I should hope to make 
it shorter. As between two persons, when one refuses to 
deal with the other and thus injures the other, no unlawful 
injury is committed if he is not under special contract to do 
the thing that he refuses to do. It is what in law is called 
damnum absque injuria. 

A body of workmen are dissatisfied with the terms of their 
employment. They seek to compel their employer to come 
to their terms by striking. They may legally do so. The 
loss and inconvenience he suffers he can not complain of. 
But when they seek to compel third persons, who have no 
quarrel with their employer, to withdraw from all association 
with him by threats that unless such third persons do so 
the workmen will inflict similar injury on such third persons, 



150 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the combination is oppressive, involves duress, and if injury 
results, it is actionable. It is true that the result of the rule 
is that an act is actionable or not as the intent with which it 
is done varies. This is not frequent in civil injuries, but 
it is not unknown. 

This I understand to be the view of the Anthracite Coal 
Commission, of which Judge Gray of the Third Circuit was 
certainly the most conspicuous lawyer member, and I think 
that it is a safe rule of distinction in all labor controversies. 
Such a view does not render illegal the union of all members 
of a trades union, whether employees of the particular 
employer or not, to withdraw from association with him. 
It permits them thus to express their sympathy with their 
fellows. But it does forbid them, by threatening men who 
otherwise would be entirely willing to associate with their 
former employer, to compel that third person to join them 
in the fight. 

The decision in Moores & Company against the Brick- 
layers' Union sustained the verdict and gave judgment against 
the Union. The Union took the case to the Supreme Court 
of Ohio, where it was affirmed without opinion. The 
decision was won in a local court and did not attract any 
immediate attention. Subsequently the fact that the reason- 
ing was quite elaborate and the citation and consideration of 
authorities extended, elicited considerable reference to 
it in other decisions, and in the discussions of a naturally 
interesting subject in legal periodicals, and at bar association 
meetings; but it did not arouse labor-unions to resolutions 
of protest, so far as I can recollect. 

The next case was one that attracted far greater attention 
because of the prominence of one of the parties, and the 
very large body of men more or less indirectly interested in 
the issues. I had then become United States Circuit Judge 
tor the Sixth Judicial Circuit. The Toledo & Ann Arbor 
Railroad was a railroad running from Michigan to Toledo, 
Ohio, where it made connections with six different railroads. 
It had had a controversy with its locomotive engineers as to 



AND STATE PAPERS 151 

their wages, and through Mr. Arthur, who was the Grand 
Chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a strike 
had been declared against that railroad. 

The Brotherhood had a secret rule (No. 12) which pro- 
vided that it was a violation of obligation for any member of 
the Brotherhood engaged with a connecting line to haul the 
cars of a railroad company against which a strike had been 
approved by the Grand Chief. The six railroads who were 
made parties defendant to this action had been notified by 
their engineers that they probably must refuse to haul the 
cars of the Toledo & Ann Arbor road. This had come to 
the knowledge of the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad Com- 
pany, and it accordingly filed a bill in equity in the United 
States Court at Toledo, asking that the six railroads be com- 
pelled to haul the cars of the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad, 
on the ground that this was their specific duty under the 
Interstate Commerce Law, which imposed a fine and penalty 
upon all officers, employees, and servants of any road 
engaged in interstate commerce who should refuse to 
perform it. 

Judge Ricks accordingly issued a temporary restraining 
order against all the defendant railroad companies, their 
officers and employees, and had the injunctive process served 
on all the locomotive engineers. After this injunction was 
issued, Mr. Arthur, the Grand Chief, sent a telegram to the 
eno-ineers of the Lake Shore, advising them that he had 
approved the strike against the Toledo & Ann Arbor Rail- 
road, and inviting their attention to the laws of the order, 
including secret Rule No. 12, and directing them to act 
accordingly. A supplemental petition was then filed in the 
same cause, and I was applied to. as circuit judge, to enjoin 
Mr. Arthur by mandatory injunction to withdraw his order 
to the engineers of the Lake Shore road. I issued without 
notice a temporary mandatory restraining order, requiring 
Mr. Arthur to withdraw his telegram until the case could be 
heard. Mr. Arthur obeyed the order. The case was 
promptly heard in the course of a day or two at Toledo. 



152 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Meantime one of the engineers who had received notice 
of the injunction on the Lake Shore road, an engineer named 
Lennon, had refused to haul the cars of the Toledo & Ann 
Arbor road. He was brought before Judge Ricks on an 
attachment for contempt of the order. The two causes 
were heard the same day in Toledo. My recollection is that 
I did not sit in the Lennon case, and that Judge Ricks did 
not sit in the Arthur case. 

The result of the Lennon case was that Judge Ricks 
sentenced Lennon to confinement for thirty days for con- 
tempt. After a release by writ of habeas corpus to test the 
legality of Lennon's confinement was denied by Judge Ricks, 
an appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals at Cincinnati, 
and thence to the Supreme Court of the United States, and 
the confinement of Lennon was held to be legal. 

In the Arthur case I made the temporary order of injunc- 
tion permanent and wrote an opinion giving my reasons. 
No appeal was taken from this ruling in the Arthur case, 
although a direct appeal on the merits lay to the Court of 
Appeals and thence by certiorari to the Supreme Court of 
the United States. What I decided in the Arthur case was 
this: That the Toledo & Ann Arbor road had a right under 
the Interstate Commerce Law to have its cars hauled by the 
Lake Shore road, and that a conspiracy by the servants of 
the Lake Shore company to compel it to decline to perform 
that duty in order that they might injure the Toledo & Ann 
Arbor road, thus involving the Lake Shore company in a 
controversy in which it had no interest and in which it was 
an unwilling participant, was a secondary boycott at com- 
mon law. I also held that this was unlawful under the 
statutes of the United States, and injuries arising therefrom 
were of such a recurrent character and the loss was so 
difficult to estimate, that a suit at law offered no adequate 
remedy, and therefore a court of equity would prevent the 
injury by injunction. 

It will be observed that Judge Ricks in his decision had 
held that Lennon as an engineer of the Lake Shore road had 



AND STATE PAPERS 153 

violated the injunction requiring him to haul the cars of the 
Toledo & Ann Arbor road, and that I had by mandatory 
injunction directed Arthur to withdraw his telegram directing 
ali engineers of the Lake Shore road to do that which Lennon 
had done; the point being, not that Lennon and the engineers 
of the Lake Shore road could not leave the employ of the 
Lake Shore road freely and without restraint by injunction, 
but only that as long as they remained in the employ of 
the Lake Shore company they were pro tanto the company 
itself and burdened with the duties of the company and must 
obey the injunctions that would lie against the company 
itself. In no decision was it affirmed that an injunction could 
compel a man to remain in the service against his will, or 
that in any labor dispute could a man in the employ of 
another be enjoined from striking. 

Though this distinction was made clear in both decisions, 
it was generally reported, and believed by many who did 
not look into it, that we had enjoined men from striking and 
had punished them in contempt proceedings for exercising 
the right to strike. It is easy to see, therefore, how it was 
possible for members of the Brotherhood of Engineers and 
of labor organizations generally to believe that a blow had 
been struck at organized labor from which it could never 
recover, and that the instrumentality of the strike, which in 
the last resort is the chief weapon that the laboring man has 
to secure better wages and better terms of employment, had 
been taken away. Judge Kicks and 1 were denounced from 
one end of this country to the other, in resolutions of labor 
organizations and kindred associations, as enemies of labor 
who had sought by judicial process to subject the working- 
man as a slave to the complete control of his employer. As 
a matter of fact, I had laid down, not only in the Moores 
case but in the Arthur case, the principles upon which the 
success of labor organizations must always depend, and 
upon which in the last ten years they have grown to their 
very great proportions and increased in their very great 
usefulness. 



154 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

These principles were stated in a somewhat more specific 
way in the Phelan case, to which I shall presently refer, and 
from which I shall (juote. 

I was attacked further, and this attack was heard in the 
late campaign, on the ground that I had denounced the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers as a criminal con- 
spiracy against the laws of the United States. What I did in 
the opinion was to point out the fact that secret Rule No. 12, 
if enforced, would involve all those engaged in its enforce- 
ment, both those who actually took part in it and those who 
ordered it, in a criminal conspiracy against the laws of the 
United States. I did so in these words : 

"We have thus considered with some care the criminal 
character of Rule 12 and its enforcement, not only because, 
as will presently be seen, it assists in determining the civil 
liabilities that grow out of them, but also because we wish 
to make plain, if we can, to the intelligent and generally 
law-abiding men who compose the Brotherhood of Locomo- 
tive Engineers, as well as to their usually conservative chief 
officer, what we can not believe they appreciate, that, not- 
withstanding their perfect organization, and their charitable, 
temperance, and other elevating and most useful purposes, 
the existence and enforcement of Rule 12, under their organic 
law, make the whole Brotherhood a criminal conspiracy 
against the laws of their country." 

The effect of that admonition, which was intended to be 
kindly, and it seems to me was couched in a perfectly friendly 
tone, was to lead the Brotherhood to repeal Rule No. 12; 
and I understand now that all the railroad labor organiza- 
tions, which are among the best conducted of trades unions 
in the country, deprecate the use of the boycott as a weapon 
in labor controversies. 

The third reported decision for which I was attacked in 
the late campaign was what was known as the Phelan case. 
1 1 was presented as a phase of the Debs insurrection. 

Debs was the president of the American Railway Union, 
a labor association organized as a rival of the older railway 



AND STATE PAPERS 155 

brotherhoods. Soon after the organization was complete, 
Debs, as president of the directors of the association, became 
interested in the question whether the Pullman Company, 
manufacturing Pullman cars near Chicago, paid their 
employees sufficient wages. It was decided that the wages 
were not sufficient. The employees were induced to strike, 
and then it was sought by the American Railway Union to 
compel the Pullman Company to pay higher wages by threat- 
ening a universal boycott against all the railroads of the 
country that had contracts with the Pullman Company for 
the use of the Pullman cars, and to compel them to withdraw 
from or break these contracts and to discontinue the use of 
the Pullman cars. 

Although this was the original purpose, it degenerated into 
an attempt to tie up every railroad in the country by with- 
drawing all the railway employees from railroad work 
without regard to whether the railroads had business for 
the Pullman Company or not. In other words, it became 
a boycott against the public in an attempt to make the public 
compel the Pullman Company to raise the wages it paid its 
employees, although the public had no relation to the Pullman 
Company, which was a private corporation doing a private 
business, so far as its manufacturing of cars was concerned, 
and had no power over the question of the amount of wages 
to be paid by it to those whom it employed. 

In pursuance of this plan, Debs scut Phelan to Cincinnati 
to tie up all the railroads in that city, and among others was 
the Cincinnati. New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Com- 
pany, which operated as a lessee the Cincinnati Southern 
Railroad, and which for the time being was in the hands of 
the court in charge of Mr. Felton, receiver. I was the circuit 
judge, resident in Cincinnati, who had appointed the receiver, 
and was conducting the affairs so far as the court had to 
interfere in that receivership. 

The receiver filed a petition in the proceeding, asking an 
attachment of Phelan for contempt of court. The petition 
charged that Phelan was attempting to prevent the receiver 



156 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

from earning out the order of the court directing him to 
run the road, and was advising all those who had left the 
employ of the receiver, and others, to use violence in com- 
pelling the receiver's employees to leave his employment; 
that in consequence the receiver was obliged to hire con- 
stables to protect his men. 

Phelan was brought in on a warrant, and was served with 
an injunction to prevent his continuing in that which he was 
already charged to have done, and the cause was set for a 
trial at his convenience. It was promptly heard, and a 
week was consumed in the trial. At the end of that time 
I found Phelan guilty of contempt of court, and sentenced 
him to six months in the Lebanon jail. His actions after 
the injunction was served on him were exactly what they 
had been before, and he conducted himself avowedly and 
flagrantly in violation of the court's orders. In this case, 
as in the others, I pointed out, with all the clearness of which 
I was capable, the distinction between the strike and the 
boycott, and perhaps more fully than in previous cases 
explained what were the rights and responsibilities of the 
trades unions engaged in a controversy with an employer. 
In this case I said: 

' Now, it may be conceded in the outset that the employees 
of the receiver had the right to organize into or join a labor 
union which should take joint action as to their terms of 
employment. It is of benefit to them and to the public that 
laborers should unite in their common interest and for lawful 
purposes. They have labor to sell. If they stand together, 
they are often able, all of them, to command better prices for 
their labor than when dealing singly with rich employers, 
because the necessities of the single employee may compel 
him to accept any terms offered him. The accumulation of 
a fund for the support of those who feel that the wages offered 
are below market prices is one of the legitimate objects of 
such an organization. They have the right to appoint 
officers who shall advise them as to the course to be taken 
by them in their relations with their employer. They may 



AND STATE PAPERS 157 

unite with other unions. The officers they appoint, or any 
other person to whom they choose to listen, may advise them 
as to the proper course to be taken by them in regard to their 
employment, or, if they choose to repose such authority in 
any one, may order them, on pain of expulsion from their 
union, peaceably to leave the employ of their employer 
because any of the terms of their employment are unsat- 
isfactory." 

In the Arthur case it was brought out quite distinctly that 
while employees who struck for an unlawful purpose could 
not be enjoined from doing so, because to enjoin them 
would be to compel the specific performance of a contract 
of service, in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment against 
involuntary servitude, it was left open as an undecided 
question whether men who were inciting employees to quit 
their employer in violation of some legal duty might not be 
restrained from doing so; and in the Phelan case, the effect 
of the decision was to hold that where one was inciting 
employees to quit in pursuance of an unlawful boycott, he 
could "be enjoined, although the employees could not be. 

There was one other case — indeed, there may have been 
more, though I do not recollect them — in which I issued an 
injunction growing out of a labor dispute and in which I 
punished men for a violation of the order of the injunction. 
A number of miners on the Ohio side of the Ohio River 
combined together in a conspiracy to prevent the importation 
into Ohio of West Virginia coal, and every time that a train 
of one of the West Virginia railroads was delivered to the 
Ohio railroad, the miners jumped upon the train and by 
physical force prevented the further transportation of the 
coal. 

The Baltimore & Ohio road, which was the West Virginia 
road, brought suit against the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling 
to compel the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling to take its cars 
and transport them, and then it was made to appear by the 
Baltimore & Ohio that certain defendants, who were named, 
had conspired to prevent the Baltimore & Ohio from 



158 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

securing transportation over the Cleveland, Lorain & 
Wheeling. 

I issued a mandatory injunction against the Cleveland, 
Lorain & Wheeling compelling it to receive and transport the 
cars, and named as defendants to the action a number of the 
Ohio miners engaged in the conspiracy. They were duly 
served, and, after a full notice, were brought into court. 
They did not deny their guilt, and I sentenced them to six 
months in jail. It was a case of blockade of interstate 
commerce by force, and it was only by the decree of an 
equity court that the passage of coal from one State to another 
was made free and uninterrupted. There was no report of 
the opinion in this case, which presented questions similar 
to those in the Arthur case. When I reached Wheeling in 
the campaign, I was confronted by the exploitation of this 
case in the local paper, and explained it as I have explained 
it here. 

AVitli this record of decisions in labor cases, in which I 
have had each time to decide against the labor organiza- 
t ions, or the cause with which they sympathized, I had 
always been of opinion that it would be utterly impossible 
for me to run for office before the people even if I desired to 
do so. My ambition was not political. I desired if possible 
to resume my work on the Bench, and the disqualification 
which these decisions seemed to me to make clear and certain 
did not really involve in my judgment any sacrifice on my 
part. I think it fell to my lot to take part in more cases of 
this kind than most judges, and had I had political ambi- 
tion, it might have been regarded as a misfortune. 

The attacks made upon me in labor circles and by labor 
journals did not particularly trouble me, because I thought 
that in the course of time it would appear that what I had 
decided was clearly the law, and that the principles that I 
had laid down were those upon which trades unions properly 
conducted would thrive and attain their greatest usefulness. 

The decision of the Supreme Court in the Debs case, in 
an opinion by Mr. Justice Brewer, removed all doubt, if 



AND STATE PAPERS 159 

any had before existed, as to the right of a court of equity 
to issue an injunction in such cases, and I don't think that in 
any respectable court it is now disputed. But the effect of 
Mr. ( rompers's action and that of the Democratic party in its 
platform was to appeal, so to speak, from the decision of the 
court to the decision of the electorate. They had done this 
once before in appealing against the decision of the Supreme 
Court in the Debs case, which was characterized in the plat- 
forms of 1896 and of 1900 as government by injunction, but 
the appeals apparently had not met with great success. 

They were now able, however, to appeal in a more con- 
crete way to the people, by asking them to vote against the 
candidate who was as much responsible for the enunciation 
of the principles that they contended against as any judge 
on the Bench. I was characterized as the "father of injunc- 
tions." This attributed to me something that I did not 
deserve, for injunctions had already been issued in labor 
disputes by Vice-Chancellor Malins in England; by the 
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in the case of 
Sherry vs. Perkins; by Judge Sage in the case of Casey vs. 
Typographical Union; by Judge Beatty in the Cceur 
d'Alene strike troubles, and by other judges. 

It had fallen to my lot, because of the number of cases 
that 1 had subsequently to consider, to write rather more 
elaborate opinions on the subject and perhaps state the 
principles more at length than other judges, but I was not 
entitled to cither the credit or discredit of having introduced 
a new equity jurisdiction in labor troubles. There was 
no new jurisdiction. It was merely an application of plain 
equity principles to novel situations. The character of the 
injury in cases of boycott when business is injured is such 
that it is impossible to estimate what the injury is. This 
is palpable. Moreover, I lie injury is a result of a series of 
acts combined together, each one of which would not justify 
a suit for damages, but all of which taken together with their 
recurrent effect bring about the injury which can only be 
remedied adequately by an injunction to prevent the carrying 



160 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

out of the combination. This has always justified the issuing 
of an injunction in equity, and its use is not an enlargement of 
equity jurisdiction but a mere application of the oldest and 
most well-known principles. 

Viewing as I did the effect on my political attitude of 
these decisions, it may well be supposed that I was surprised 
when I discovered the strength that I had developed in the 
Republican Convention, and found that the opposition to 
me on the ground of my labor decisions, although suffi- 
ciently elaborated, did not lose for me a great many votes 
among the delegates; but while this was the result in the 
Convention, there was very great reason to believe that the 
objection to me as a candidate was much more formidable. 
Mr. Gompers, through the American Federation of Labor, 
used all the machinery that that association afforded to 
secure votes for Mr. Bryan against me, and I constantly 
received most discouraging reports of the defection in the 
ranks of labor because of my injunction decisions. This 
was particularly noticeable among the railway employees 
who remembered the fact that I had enjoined Arthur, and 
carried in their memories, though indistinctly, the attacks 
that had been made upon me at the time of that decision as 
a judge determined to strike down labor organizations. 
As the injunction had been directed toward the chief of the 
most conservative, useful, and powerful brotherhood, that 
of the locomotive engineers, it was not unnatural that it should 
have been remembered and cherished. 

I was very reluctant to go on the stump and discuss my 
own decisions. I knew no precedent for it, and I felt that 
if the decisions themselves did not support the conclusions 
reached, there was little use in my attempting to supply 
additional explanation or defense. I found, however, that 
.Mr. Bryan was constantly referring to me as the father of 
injunctions, and that the Democratic managers were making 
as much of this part of the issues of the campaign as possible, 
and I concluded, therefore, that the only thing for me to do 
was to seek an opportunity to tell what I had decided to 



AND STATE PAPERS 161 

audiences composed as largely of labor men as possible, 
and then leave it to their sense of justice whether the attacks 
upon me as an enemy of labor were justified. 

The first speech I made upon it was rather unpremeditated; 
it was given at Athens, Ohio, before a lot of miners who were 
trades unionists. I don't know how the speech impressed 
the audience other than by the way in which it was received. 
My friends who heard it commended its presentation and 
urged that I seek other opportunities to deal with the same 
subject. A large meeting of railway employees was organized 
in Chicago by a friendly club, at Orchestra Hall. There for 
the first time I went over in full my labor decisions. I shook 
hands afterward with every one of the audience, and I am 
quite certain that my treatment of the subject met with the 
approval of those who were present and induced them to 
believe what I contended was the fact, and believe now to 
be the fact, that of all judges who had had occasion to con- 
sider the question, I had laid down the law as favorably 
as possible for the lawful and useful organization of trades 
unions. 1 was careful to state that 1 did not apologize in 
any way for the decisions that 1 had rendered, and I only 
sought the opportunity to stale what the decisions were and 
their effect, in order to enable my hearers to judge whether 
I was the man against whom they should cast their ballots. 

I had similar meetings in Minneapolis, South Omaha, 
Lorain, East St. Louis, Kansas City, East Cleveland, and 
at Cooper Union in New York. I was able to point 
out that although the brotherhoods had attacked my 
decision against Arthur, later on, in a labor controversy 
which jrot into court in St. Louis between the brother- 
hoods and the Missouri Pacific road, my decisions in the 
Arthur case and in the Phelan case had been successfully 
cited as authorities upon which Judge Adams modified 
the injunction already issued in such a way as to enable the 
brotherhoods to win the strike and secure a betterment of the 
conditions of employment with that company. I was also 
able to point out to the brotherhoods that in the Phelan case 



162 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

in sentencing Phelan, I was merely sentencing a man who 
had done everything that he possibly could to incite his 
followers to violence against the members of the old brother- 
hoods who had declined to follow Debs and who stuck to the 
cabs of their engines in faithful service of the receiver. 

II is impossible, of course, to tell which of the many reasons 
thai enler into the decision of an electorate is most influential. 
If is very certain that Mr. Gompers was not able to carry 
with him his followers in the American Federation of Labor; 
the (wo million votes that he claimed were controlled by that 
organization. It is very clear that in the large cities the 
labor vote did not go in unusual numbers to Mr. Bryan as 
against me. In Greater New York, in Boston, in Phila- 
delphia, in Baltimore, in Cleveland, in Cincinnati, in Chicago, 
in St. Louis, and in San Francisco I received certainly a 
full party vote and in many of them a very much larger vote 
than the party vote, and in those States the Federation of 
Labor is stronger than in any other parts of the country. 

I am, of course, not blind to the fact that one of the chief 
arguments in my favor with the wage-earner in this cam- 
paign was the fear that the election of Mr. Bryan would 
make the hard times permanent, and the hope that the con- 
tinuance of the Republican party in power would insure 
a ret urn of good times. This argument doubtless neutralized 
the one directed against me as a man unfair to labor; and 
there were probably a number of men who voted for me 
without approving me, because while they liked Mr. Bryan's 
attitude in the injunction matter, they preferred to give 
victory to that side which was likely to insure steadier work 
and better wages. Still, I think, in spite of all this, it must 
be conceded that the showing made by Mr. Gompers upon 
the issue against me as an enemy of labor was considerably 
less than he expected it to be, and that this was due in part 
al leasl !<> the fact (hat no one can control the vote of the 
intelligent laboring man; that he does not yield to mere 
sentiment or the calling of names, but that he himself investi- 
gates the reasons and makes up an independent mind. 



AND STATE PAPERS 163 

I did not hesitate to meet the issue on the question of a trial 
by jury in contempt cases. I attempted to point out the 
dreadful weakening of the power of the court that would 
ensue if every order to be performed outside of the presence 
of the court might be violated and no punishment ensue 
except after a trial by jury. I think I showed that the result 
of such a change in the law would be to put the means of 
evading decrees of the court of equity into the hands of the 
wealthy and unscrupulous, and that it would work but little 
benefit to the poor and needy wage-earner. The appeal 
made to the farmer, merchant, business man, and the public 
at large, including the intelligent wage-earner, against the 
weakening of the power of the court, in the interest of a 
particular class, was, if one can judge from the attitude of 
the audiences addressed, as strong a vote-getting argument 
as the Republican party had in the late campaign. Cer- 
tainly it was next in force and persuasiveness to that based 
on a prospective restoration of good times in a Republican 
victory. 



XVI 

MESSAGE CONCERNING THE GOVERNMENT OF 

CUBA 

(JUNE 5, 1909) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I HAVE the honor to transmit herewith a communication 
from the Acting Secretary of War, under date of May 
8th, submitting the report, with accompanying exhibits, of 
the Honorable Charles E. Magoon, provisional governor of 
Cuba, for the period from December 1, 1908, to January 
28, 1909, when the provisional government was terminated 
and the island again turned over to the Cubans. I recom- 
mend, in accordance with the suggestion of the Acting 
Secretary of War, that this report and the exhibits be printed. 

I think it only proper to take this opportunity to say that 
the administration by Governor Magoon of the government 
of Cuba from 1906 to 1909 involved the disposition and 
settlement of many very difficult questions and required 
on his part the exercise of ability and tact of the highest order. 
II gives me much pleasure to note in this public record the 
credit due to Governor Magoon for his distinguished service. 

The army of Cuban pacification under Major-General 
Barry was of the utmost assistance in the preservation of the 
peace of the island and the maintenance of law and order, 
without the slightest friction with the inhabitants of the 
island, although the army was widely distributed through 
the six provinces and came into close contact with the people. 

The administration of Governor Magoon and the laws 
recommended by the advisory commission, with Colonel 
Crowder, of the Judge-Advocate-General's Corps at its head, 
and put into force by the Governor, have greatly facilitated 

164 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 165 

the progress of good government in Cuba. At a fair election 
held under the advisory commission's new election law 
General Gomez was chosen President and he has begun his 
administration under good auspices. I am glad to express 
the hope that the new government will grow in strength and 
self-sustaining capacity under the provisions of the Cuban 
constitution. 



XVII 

MESSAGE CONCERNING TAX ON NET INCOME 
OF CORPORATIONS 

(JUNE 16, 1909) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

IT IS the constitutional duty of the President from time to 
time to recommend to the consideration of Congress such 
measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. In my 
inaugural address, immediately preceding this present 
extraordinary session of Congress, I invited attention to the 
necessity for a revision of the tariff at this session, and stated 
the principles upon which I thought the revision should be 
effected. I referred to the then rapidly increasing deficit, 
and pointed out the obligation on the part of the framers 
of the tariff bill to arrange the duty so as to secure an ade- 
quate income, and suggested that if it was not possible to 
do so by import duties, new kinds of taxation must be 
adopted* and among them I recommended a graduated 
inheritance tax as correct in principle and as certain and easy 
of collection. The House of Representatives has adopted 
the suggestion and has provided in the bill it passed for the 
collection of such a tax. In the Senate the action of its 
Finance Committee and the course of the debate indicate 
that it may not agree to this provision, and it is now proposed 
to make up the deficit by the imposition of a general income 
lax, in form and substance of almost exactly the same 
character as that which in the case of Pollock vs. Farmers' 
Loan and Trust Company (157 U. S., 429) was held by the 
Supreme Court to be a direct tax, and therefore not within the 
j lower of the Federal Government to impose unless appor- 
tioned among the several States according to population. 

166 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 167 

This new proposal, which I did not discuss in my inaugural 
address or in my message at the opening of the present 
session, makes it appropriate for me to submit to the Con- 
gress certain additional recommendations. 

The decision of the Supreme Court in the income-tax 
cases deprived the National Government of a power which, 
by reason of previous decisions of the court, it was generally 
supposed that Government had. It is undoubtedly a power 
the National Government ought to have. It might be indis- 
pensable to the nation's life in great crises. Although I have 
not considered a constitutional amendment as necessary 
to the exercise of certain phases of this power, a mature 
consideration has satisfied me that an amendment is the only 
proper course for its establishment to its full extent. I there- 
fore recommend to the Congress that both Houses, by a 
two-thirds vote, shall propose an amendment to the Con- 
stitution conferring the power to levy an income tax upon 
the National Government without apportionment among the 
States in proportion to population. 

This course is much to be preferred to the one proposed 
of re-enacting a law once judicially declared to be uncon- 
stitutional. For the Congress to assume that the court will 
reverse itself, and to enact legislation on such an assumption, 
will not strengthen popular confidence in the stability of 
judicial construction of the Constitution. It is much wiser 
policy to accept the decision and remedy the defect by 
amendment in due and regular course. 

Again, it is clear that, by the enactment of the proposed 
law, the Congress will not be bringing money into the 
Treasury to meet the present deficiency, but by putting on 
the statute book a law already there and never repealed, will 
simply be suggesting to the executive officers of the Govern- 
ment their possible duty to invoke litigation. If the court 
should maintain its former view, no tax would be collected 
at all. If it should ultimately reverse itself, still no taxes 
would have been collected until after protracted delay. 

It is said the difficulty and delay in securing the approval 



168 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of three-fourths of the States will destroy all chance of 
adopting the amendment. Of course, no one can speak 
with certainty upon this point, but I have become con- 
vinced that a great majority of the people of this country are 
in favor of vesting the National Government with power 
to levy an income tax, and that they will secure the adoption 
of the amendment in the States, if proposed to them. 

Second, the decision in the Pollock case left power in the 
National Government to levy an excise tax which accom- 
plishes the same purpose as a corporation income tax, and 
is free from certain objections urged to the proposed income- 
tax measure. 

I therefore recommend an amendment to the tariff bill 
imposing upon all corporations and joint stock companies 
for profit, except national banks (otherwise taxed), savings 
banks, and building and loan associations, an excise tax 
measured by 2 per cent, on the net income of such corpora- 
lions. This is an excise tax upon the privilege of doing 
business as an artificial entity and of freedom from a general 
partnership liability enjoyed by those who own the stock. 

I am informed that a 2 per cent, tax of this character would 
bring into the Treasury of the United States not less than 
^.5,000,000. 

The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Spreckels 
Sugar Refining Company against McClain (192 U. S., 397) 
seems clearly to establish the principle that such a tax as this 
is an excise tax upon privilege and not a direct tax on prop- 
erty, and is within the federal power without apportionment 
according to population. The tax on net income is pref- 
erable to one proportionate to a percentage of the gross 
receipts, because it is a tax upon success and not failure. It 
imposes a burden at the source of the income at a time when 
the corporation is well able to pay and when collection is 
easy. 

Another merit of this tax is the federal supervision which 
must be exercised in order to make the law effective over the 
annual accounts and business transactions of all corporations. 



AND STATE PAPERS 169 

While the faculty of assuming a corporate form has been of 
the utmost utility in the business world, it is also true that 
substantially all of the abuses and all of the evils which have 
aroused the public to the necessity of reform were made 
possible by the use of this very faculty. If now. by a per- 
fectly legitimate and effective system of taxation, we are 
incidentally able to possess the Government and the stock- 
holders and the public of the knowledge of the real business 
transactions and the gains and profits of every corporation 
in the country, we have made a long step toward that super- 
visory control of corporations which may prevent a further 
abuse of power. 

I recommend, then, first, the adoption of a joint resolution 
by two-thirds of both Houses proposing to the States an 
amendment to the Constitution granting to the Federal 
( rovernment the right to levy and collect an income tax with- 
out apportionment among the Slates according to population, 
and. second, the enactment, as part of the pending revenue 
measure, either as a substitute for, or in addition to. the 
inheritance tax, of an excise tax upon all corporations, 
measured by 2 per cent, of their net income. 



XVIII 

ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE ME- 
MORIAL TO DR. BENJAMIN F. STEPHENSON, 
FOUNDER OF THE GRAND ARMY OF 
THE REPUBLIC, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(JULY, 3, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman; My Fellow Citizens: 

WE ARE met to dedicate a memorial to a Union soldier 
who served four years as a surgeon in the Civil War, 
and who also builded an institution by which there should be 
united in the bonds of fellowship all the sweet association, 
all the deep lesson of loyalty, and all the pride of patriotism 
that such a civil war as that could arouse in millions of hearts. 
When men at the formative period in life — from 18 to 22 
— are associated in any work, whether it be in college, in 
society, in church, or otherwise, they carry with them after- 
ward the fondest memories and associations for each other 
because they have passed through a common mold. But 
how much greater must be the sweet association and the 
bond of union between men who for four years passed through 
the dangers of the Civil War; those who survived thinking 
of the tender memories of those who gave up their lives for 
their country; those surviving carrying with them the sweet 
association, the stories of courage, and tales full of humor and 
of pathos. I can conceive no bond of union stronger than 
that which unites the men who fought from '61 to '65 in 
the Grand Army; and it was to the credit of the founder of 
the Grand Army of the Republic that he saw the solid basis 
upon which such a structure as that great society could be 
erected. 

You will recollect that there were prophets of evil with 

170 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 171 

respect to the fate of the United States after the war should 
cease, after the end should be accomplished for which the 
North was fighting, and it was said that the aggregation of 
a million men in arms threatened our free institutions. 
They recalled that the Pretorian Guard of Rome was an 
instrument in furthering the ambition of those who would 
suppress free institutions and who were to assume despotic 
power. But all those prophecies faded into nothingness. 
The men who composed that million were men in favor of 
free institutions, who had fought for them, and did not intend 
to sacrifice them to anything else. There was no man with 
the ambition to improve that army as an instrument of 
despotism even if it had been willing to furnish itself as such; 
and so it was the marvel of other countries that this great 
body of organized force, than which there never was a 
stronger or better-disciplined army, faded out and disap- 
peared into the paths of peace, preserving nothing but the 
sweet memory and association they had formed during the 
war and the consciousness that they had in their own hearts 
of having rendered that greatest service, to wit: the preser- 
vation of their country. 

Stephenson organized this Grand Army of the Republic to 
preserve the essence of that army in its finest characteristic, 
in its democracy and in its patriotism. Far be it from me to 
criticize in the slightest such organizations as the Cincinnati 
and the Loyal Legion. They are great organizations, and 
those who belong to them may well have pride in them. But 
the Grand Army of the Republic knows no limitation but 
service to the Government in the Civil War; and therefore 
it is that Congress, recognizing the usefulness of such an 
organization in preserving patriotism, in maintaining it in 
its intensity during those years when commercial greed 
seemed to make many people forget it, properly contributed 
$10,000 to this memorial and recognized the Grand Army 
of the Republic as an institution which may well have 
national gratitude and national recognition. More than 
that, the Grand Army of the Republic is most useful in this: 



172 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

it represents the concentrated opinion of the men who fought 
in the war to preserve the Union, and it therefore may give 
authoritative expression, which no other body and no other 
part of the people can give, to that forgetfulness of the bitter- 
ness of the strife which existed during the four years of the 
war. I am glad to say that, while that bitterness may in a 
few instances obtain, you will never find it to exist between 
the men who actually exposed their lives on one side and the 
men who exposed their lives on the other. The union of 
the two sections has been molded strongly and more strongly 
by those meetings which ought to be encouraged between the 
blue and the gray to occur as often as possible. Even within 
my recollection on occasions like this and on Memorial Day 
and on Fourths of July I have seen the ranks of the Grand 
Army thinned. I know there are many who by jaunty step 
and by keeping their hats on are able to deceive the people as 
to their age; but the fact is, that those ranks are thinning 
from day to day, perhaps a hundred a day are going to 
their long home. It is fitting that such an association, 
which in the course of the next generation will pass away, 
should have such an enduring monument as this to testify 
not only to the patriotic service that they rendered during 
the war, but also to the service to the country that 
they have rendered by their holding high loyalty and 
patriotism since the war to the present day. 

Mr. Commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, inasmuch as Congress contributed to this monu- 
ment and provided for its erection, I am here officially to 
accept at your hands, on behalf of the Government of the 
United States, this fitting memorial of fraternity, charity, 
and loyalty. 



XIX 

ADDRESS AT THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIF- 
TIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING 
OF NORWICH, CONN. 

(JULY 5, 1909) 

My Friends: 

THINK it was last year that I had the pleasure of 



I 



addressing a Norwich audience. Then I talked to 
you on the subject of the Panama Canal and I promised to 
come back here at the 250th anniversary of your city's 
foundation, whether I was nominated and elected for the 
Presidency or not. I said that probably you would not 
want me if I was not elected, and I haven't had an oppor- 
tunitv to test you on that. But it is a great pleasure to come 
back to this beautiful town. I like to call it a town because 
while you make a distinction between the city and the town, 
the term town suggests its wonderful history. Well may 
it be called the Rose of New England. Its beauties to-day 
and its sweet memories of the past justify the use of that 
term, and if I were a Norwich man I should hug it to my 
bosom. There is something about the town differing from 
most towns whose history I know, in the individuality of the 
town itself. There are other towns that have had noted 
individuals who have made history. Norwich has had 
noted individuals whose characters, continued through three 
great crises, have given a character and an individuality to 
the town itself. 

Major John Mason was a great man and he had a son- 
in-law, James Fitch, a minister of the gospel in this town 
for forty years, who was a good man; and there were in 
those thirty-five men in whose name the nine square miles 

173 



174 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

were given by Uncas, men of bone and sinew fit to meet the 
tremendous trials of those early days. 

Then you came to the revolutionary time and you were 
not wanting', for out of the descendants of your first settlers 
you furnished great force to that which was needed to separate 
this country from England. And then again in the Civil 
War you furnished much more than your quota, and the 
names of the men who marched out from Norwich would 
have done credit to many a larger city with a much greater 
population to draw from. 

One of the things that the history of this town suggests is 
the character of the government that you had here in the 
early days. Like that of the government of other New 
England towns, but perfect in its way, it was almost a 
theocracy. The minister, James Fitch, was not alone a 
minister of the gospel as we know him to-day, exercising a 
beneficent influence in the community, but he spoke by 
authority, the State was behind him, and the men and women 
of the community were obliged to conform to the rules of 
morality and life which he laid down. 

We speak with great satisfaction of the fact that our ances- 
tors — and I claim New England ancestry — came to this 
country in order to establish freedom of religion. Well, if 
you are going to be exact, they came to this country to 
establish freedom of their religion and not the freedom of 
anybody else's religion. The truth is, in those days such a 
thing as freedom of religion was not understood. Erasmus, 
the great Dutch professor, one of the most elegant scholars 
of his day, did understand it and did advocate it, but among 
the denominations it certainly was not fully understood. 
We look with considerable horror and with a great deal of 
condemnation on those particular denominations that pun- 
ished our ancestors because our ancestors wished to have 
a different kind of religion, but when our ancestors got here 
in this country and ruled they intended to have their own 
religion and no other. But we have passed beyond that and 
out of the friction. Out of the denominational prejudices 



AND STATE PAPERS 175 

in the past we have developed a freedom of religion that 
came naturally and logically as we went on to free institutions. 
It came from those very men who built up your community 
and made its character. The Rev. James Fitch could not 
look upon any other religion in this community with any 
degree of patience, but his descendants, firm in the faith 
as he was, now see that the best way to promote Christianity 
and the worship of God and religion is to let every man 
worship God as he chooses. This community was well 
supervised by the clergy, and did well by the clergy. The 
Rev. James Fitch, after fourteen years at Saybrook, came 
here and presided in the First Church for forty more years. 
I have heard clergymen say that after a clergyman passes 
his fiftieth year he ought to be made emeritus and step out 
of the profession. They did not say so in those days. There 
was an authority about a minister of the gospel that meant 
a good deal more than mere persuasiveness, and the clergy- 
man's authority is one that seems to cultivate a long life. 

The Rev. James Fitch was succeeded by Dr. Benjamin 
Lord and he was succeeded by Dr. Strong, all of the 
same church, and the Doctors Lord and Strong presided 
together, including six years when they were both ministers 
of this town, one hundred and seventeen years. Now, think 
of the influence in a community of God-fearing men with 
force of character, with power to condemn wrong and 
uphold right, and then you can understand how Norwich 
has survived and preserved an individuality. 

Major Mason was a statesman. He was deputy governor. 
His chief was Governor Winthrop and Governor Winthrop, 
while Major Mason presided over the colony of Connecticut, 
went to London and found King Charles the Second in such 
good humor that he got that far-famed charter to Connecticut. 
They said that Charles II. was a monarch who never said 
a foolish thing and never did a wise one. Whether it was 
wise for him or not, the charter of Connecticut that he gave, 
with its principles of free institutions and its latitude to the 
people of Connecticut in carrying on their government, was 



17(5 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

certainly from our standpoint a wise act, and I don't wonder 
that when they tried to get it away they put it in that oak 
where it was not found. 

The truth is, my dear friends, we hear a great deal of 
discussion of free government and references made to the 
declaration of independence which this day celebrates. 
And some people so construe that instrument that they would 
make it mean that any body of men or women or children 
are born with the instinct of self-government so that they 
can frame a government as soon as they begin to talk. Now, 
that is not true. Self-government has been fought out in 
the history of this world and by certain races has been 
hammered out by a thousand years of struggle and men 
have taught themselves how to govern themselves. Men 
are not fit to govern themselves until they have sense and 
self-restraint enough to know what is their interest and to 
give every other man all that is coming to him according to 
right and justice. 

Now, what is true with respect, therefore, to our ancestors 
is true with respect to many races in this world. They have 
to be led on and taught the principle and lesson of self- 
government. But our ancestors, by a wise negligence in the 
home government for nearly two hundred years, came to be 
the best-prepared people there were in the world for self- 
government. Take the town of Norwich and see how those 
thirty-five men and the people who followed them made up 
a government; how they were conscious of the responsibility 
that they took upon themselves when they attempted a 
government themselves, and how they carried on an orderly 
government, a government of liberty, regulated by law. 
So it was in every town in the thirteen colonies. They were 
all men of strength, of individuality, of self-restraint, and 
they knew what it cost to build up a government and maintain 
it; and when on the fourth of July, 1776, they declared their 
independence of Great Britain, they did it with reluctance 
and with hesitation because they knew the tremendous bur- 
den on their backs, and they knew the responsibilities that 



AND STATE PAPERS 177 

tliev owed to the world and that they owed to the people for 
whom they were making the declaration. 

No better example of the character of those men who made 
that declaration of independence and who subsequently 
framed the Constitution of the United States could be found 
than right here among your representatives of the town of 
Norwich. Your selectmen, your leaders, had the education 
and the experience that fitted them, as all the Americans of 
that day were fitted, to organize and maintain a civil govern- 
ment and preserve the free institutions and liberty regulated 
by law. 

Now you have stood and looked at the procession so long 
that your eyes are strained and I do not mean to strain your 
ears. I wish again to testify to the profound pleasure I have 
had in studying the history of the town of Norwich, of going 
over the characters of your great men and of realizing that 
the strength of your community — the character of your 
community — is in the character of the men that made it 
up; and I doubt not that right here under these beautiful 
elms, and in these houses, so many of which preserve the 
memories of the past, there is the same respect for virtue, for 
individual character, for honesty, for freedom and for law 
that was left to you as a legitimate legacy from the ancestors 
whose memory you honor to-day. 



XX 

ADDRESS AT THE CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL 
OF AMERICA, CLIFF HAVEN, N. Y. 

(JULY 7, 1909) 

Your Eminence, Governor Hughes, Dr. McMahon and my 
Fellow Citizens of the Catholic Summer School of America: 

GOVERNOR HUGHES and I are going through these 
three or four days delivering speeches at each other, 
and expressing our opinions of each other in a way that will 
enable us, when we get through, to do it with greater facility. 
The truth is that the gift of eloquence and speech which 
Governor Hughes has needs no practice, but I have to have 
a little. 

I would be without that which makes a man if I did not 
appreciate to the full the kindly words of your distinguished 
Governor, and if I did not congratulate the State of New 
York on having a Governor who represents the highest ideals. 
One is almost carried off his feet before such an audience. 
There is something in the atmosphere that suggests a flying 
machine, as if you were all so full of joy that that element in 
you could raise you up, and that is the way you ought to be, 
and I congratulate you that such is the feeling. 

The combination of work and pleasure, the cultivation of 
health on the one hand and of intellect on the other, and of 
religious faith above all under such beautiful surroundings 
is calculated to make every one enthusiastic, and I share that 
enthusiasm to the full. 

I am not a Catholic, but I have had in the last ten years 
a great deal to do with the Catholic Church. My lot did 
not carry me into a part of the world that made me as familiar 
with the French Explorers, the French leaders of civilization, 

178 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 179 

like Champlain, as it did into the regions of those leaders 
that came from Spain — into the Philippines where the 
same influence that carried Champlain here and the same 
ideal that controlled him, controlled men equally brave, and 
in certain respects more successful. There was Magellan 
and later Legaspi who came out to the Philippines and with 
four or five Augustinian monks converted to Christianity that 
entire Archipelago now having some seven or eight million 
souls, and then perhaps 500,000 — the only community, the 
only people in the entire Orient that to-day as a people are 
Christians. There is on the Luneta, the great public square 
facing the ocean in Manila, a statue carved by a great Spanish 
sculptor, Querol, in which there are two figures, Legaspi, 
holding the standard of Spain and with his sword drawn, and 
behind him Urdeneta, a Recolleto monk, holding aloft behind 
all the cross, and there is in that statue such movement, such 
force, such courage that I used to like, even in the hot days 
of Manila, to stand in front of it and enjoy, as I thought I got, 
the spirit that the sculptor had tried to put in there, of loyalty 
to country and faith in God. 

I think we are reaching a point in this country where we 
are very much more tolerant of everything and everybody 
than in the past, and where we are giving justice where justice 
ought to be given. We are no longer cherishing those narrow 
prejudices that came from denominational bigotry, and we 
are able to recognize in the past those great heroes of any 
religious Christian faith and appreciate the virtues they 
exhibited as examples for us. 

Religious tolerance is rather a modern invention. Those 
of us of Puritan ancestry have been apt to think that we were 
the inventors of religious tolerance. Well, as a matter of 
fact, what we were in favor of, if I can speak for Puritan 
ancestry, was having a right to worship God as we pleased, 
and having everybody else worship God in the same way. 
But we have worked that out now; and there has been a 
great change, I am sure His Eminence the Cardinal will 
agree with me, even in the last twenty-five years. I have 



180 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

had personal evidence of it in some of the work that we had 
to do in the Philippines. Fifty years ago if it had been 
proposed to send a representative of the Government to the 
Vatican to negotiate and settle matters arising in a country 
like the Philippines between the Government and the Roman 
Catholic Church, it would have given rise to the severest con- 
demnation and criticism on the part of those who would have 
feared some diplomatic relation between the Government 
and the Vatican contrary to our traditions; but within the 
last ten years that has been done, with the full concurrence 
of all religious denominations, believing that the way to do 
things is to do them directly, and when a matter is to be 
settled that it should be settled with the head of the church 
who has authority to act. And so it fell to my lot, my dear 
friends, and in that respect just by good luck, I came to be 
an exception, which will perhaps stand for many years as 
the sole exception, of being the representative of the United 
States at the Vatican. There I had the great pleasure of 
meeting that distinguished statesman and pontiff, Leo 
XIII., a man of ninety-two, whom I expected to find rather 
a lay figure directed by the council of the Cardinals than one 
active in control of the church. But I was most pleasantly 
disappointed, for even at ninety-two he was able to withstand 
an address of mine of twenty minutes, to catch the points of 
that address, and to respond in a speech of some fifteen 
minutes, showing how fully he appreciated the issue that 
there was and its importance. 

We did not succeed in bringing about exactly the agree- 
ment which we asked, and he realized that, but he was full 
of friendly enthusiasm for the settlement of the issue and 
after two audiences which I had the honor of holding with 
him, at the close of the second one, he said, "You haven't, 
got exactly what you want in exactly the way you want it, 
but." said lie, "I am going to send a representative of mine 
to the Philippines with instructions to see that the matter is 
settled justly in accordance with the wishes of the Govern- 
ment of the United States." And it was so settled. I am 



AND STATE PAPERS 181 

gratified to say that now every question between the Church 
and the State in the Philippine Islands, which were so closely 
united that it seemed almost impossible to make a separation 
of the two as it ought to be made under our Constitution, 
has been settled fairly and justly to both sides, and that no 
bad taste or feeling of injustice exists on either side with 
respect to those questions. 

And now, my dear friends, I ought to talk about Cham- 
plain, and I would talk something about him because I 
appreciate as highly as any one can those motives that 
governed him and his high character as a man and the 
obstacles that he had to overcome; but when I get up to 
talk on any subject, I am a little bit in the attitude of the 
doctor who could cure fits and that is all he could cure and so 
he wanted to throw his patients into that condition. I can 
only talk about the Philippines, and that is what I have done, 
but I hope they have some application to the thoughts of the 
morning. 

I thank you, my dear friends, I thank the reverend fathers 
and His Eminence the Cardinal, for the cordial reception 
that you have given to the civil head of New York and to the 
civil head of the Nation. 



XXI 

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET, BOSTON CHAMBER 
OF COMMERCE, BOSTON, MASS. 

(SEPTEMBER 14, 1909) 

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, 
My Fellow Citizens: 

I HAVE been under a promise to come to Boston and 
speak to its Chamber of Commerce for more than a 
year. It is a great pleasure to redeem that promise. To be 
the guest at a magnificent feast like this, to be thus received in 
Boston, one of the greatest centers of the wealth, of the culture 
and art, of the educational influences, and of the moral forces 
of our country, and to be welcomed by so distinguished a 
company, the Governor of the State, a Justice of the Federal 
Supreme Court, Foreign Ministers, members of the State 
Judiciary, United States Senators and Representatives, power- 
ful and broad-minded prelates and ministers of religion, 
together with the men who are the bone and sinew of the 
commerce of this great section — make this occasion most 
memorable in my life, and properly call for an expression 
on my part of deep gratitude and high appreciation. 

I congratulate Boston on a union in one organization of 
all of her business men, for it insures a concentration of 
influence that must make for good. The opportunities for 
usefulness are great in civic improvement and progress and 
in Stale and National affairs. While you doubtless include 
in your ranks persons of all political views, many questions 
must arise upon which you can all unite, and thus exert a 
most effective influence. 

As Boston is the commercial center of New England, your 
association really speaks for New England, a part of the 

182 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 183 

country whose importance can be measured by the emphasis 
with which sectional writers and speakers sometimes attack 
it. It is no mere exaggeration of speech or flattery, therefore, 
for me to point out that this Chamber of Commerce, by the 
ideals which it may maintain in the matter of business 
integrity and scrupulous business methods and in mainten- 
ance of law in the conduct of corporations, has great power 
and corresponding responsibility. 

I am very grateful for the hospitable reception which I 
have had on the North shore of Massachusetts. A vacation 
which I had planned of more than two months has been 
whittled down to a little more than one month; but every 
minute of it I have enjoyed. 

The bracing and pure air, the beautiful roads, the fine golf 
links, the prosperous towns and villages, the intelligent ami 
considerate people, all have contributed to make my stay a 
delightful one. The beauties of that region are nothing but 
an expansion and enlargement of the wonderful park system 
and suburbs of Boston. 

I have attempted to keep within the speed limit and 
before a broad-minded judge I could establish this by satis- 
factory evidence. But it has not prevented me from motor- 
ing into every village and town and countryside of Essex 
County. I am delighted at the prospect of returning here 
again next summer, when I hope and pray that no tariff or 
other bill will shorten my days of leisure. 

I am on the eve of beginning a journey 13,000 miles in 
length, which will enable me to see tens and hundreds of 
thousands of my fellow citizens, and enable them, I hope, to 
see me. Occasionally I hear a query, why should I start 
off on such a trip and what particular good does it do to 
anybody ? 

Well, it certainly is not going to be a pleasure trip, although 
I shall enjoy it. it will involve much hard work and a 
great deal of mental effort to think of things to say, and to 
say them simply and clearly so that they can be under- 
stood. 



184 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

It will strain the digestion not only of myself and those 
who accompany me, but also of the many who extend 
hospitality along the way; and it will very considerably 
reduce the appropriation of $25,000 made by Congress for 
the traveling expenses of the President. 

On the other hand, it will certainly give me a very much 
more accurate impression as to the views of the people in the 
sections which I visit. It will bring closely to me the needs 
of particular sections, so far as national legislation and 
executive action are concerned, and I believe it will make 
me a wiser man and a better public officer. 

Moreover, it will give the people an opportunity to see 
the man whom they have chosen, for the time being, to act 
as their chief executive, and who, because of this office, in a 
sense temporarily typifies nationality. I ought to be able to 
explain to the people some of the difficulties of government 
and some of the problems of solution from the standpoint of 
the executive and the legislator, as distinguished from that 
of the honest but irresponsible critic. 

The personal touch between the people and the man to 
whom they temporarily delegate power of course conduces 
to a better understanding between them. Moreover, I 
ought not to omit to mention as a useful result of my journey- 
ing that I am to visit a great many expositions and fairs, and 
that the curiosity to see the President will certainly increase 
the box receipts and tend to rescue many commendable 
enterprises from financial disaster. 

This is an innocent, but it has come to be a very useful, 
function of the presidential office. 

The thing that I most object to and look forward to with 
most fear is the necessity for speaking every day on some 
subject or other to a listening multitude. It becomes a 
brain-racking performance before one gets through with a 
trip of two months. 

At first everything the President says is reported in the 
newspapers. If after a time he repeats himself, as he must 
do, and the correspondents and reporters exercise the dis- 



AND STATE PAPERS 185 

cretion which they ought, and cut the report, a suffering 
public will thank them. 

One of the reasons why I hesitated to fix the time for meet- 
ing the Boston Chamber of Commerce on the eve of my 
departure for the West was because I would have to make a 
speech here and I needed all the material that I could think 
of for speeches in the West. 

When I explained this to the committee who were good 
enough to wait upon me to tender your hospitable invitation 
I was relieved greatly to hear from Mr. Frederick P. Fish, 
who was one of the committee, the statement that I need 
give myself no concern in that regard, because commonplace 
remarks would be entirely appropriate from me here. 

Now, whether Mr. Fish meant by this to characterize the 
intellectual capacity of the speaker, or the intellectual 
demands of the audience, I am at a loss to say. But if what 
I say to-night is commonplace, you may know that I am only 
filling the order which Mr. Fish gave me, and complying 
with the invitation as I have understood it. 

This is the second week of September. We are all ending 
our vacations and going home. This is the time of the year, 
rather than the first of the calendar year, when good resolu- 
tions ought to be made — and kept, as far as possible. This 
is the time when, looking forward to the coming again of 
Congress in December, one must consider the needs of the 
country so far as they may be relieved by congressional 
legislation, and attempt to state what that legislation should 
be. 

Your chairman has made some reference to a number of 
subjects to which the attention of Congress may well be 
directed. In the first place, there is the monetary situation. 
While it is probable that the Vreeland Bill passed by the 
last Congress would aid us in case of another financial crash, 
it is certain that our banking and monetary system is a 
patched-up affair which satisfies nobody, and least of all 
those who are clear-headed and have a knowledge of what a 
financial system should be. 



186 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The matter has been referred by Congress to a monetary 
commission, which has been studying with much interest and 
enthusiasm the financial and banking systems of the great 
Governments of Europe and has embodied and will soon 
publish in interesting and attractive form the best accounts 
of the financial systems of the world. 

It is quite apparent from the statements of Mr. Vreeland, 
who is now the head of the committee on banking and 
currency in the House of Representatives, and from the 
conversations of Mr. Aldrich, who is the chairman of the 
monetary commission and of the finance committee of the 
Senate, that the trend of the minds of the monetary com- 
mission is toward some sort of arrangement for a central 
bank of issue which shall control the reserve and exercise 
a power to meet and control the casual stringency which 
from time to time will come in the circulating medium of the 
country and the world. 

Mr. Aldrich states that there are two indispensable require- 
ments in any plan to be adopted involving a central bank of 
issue. The one is that the control of the monetary system 
shall be kept free from Wall Street influences, and the other, 
that it shall not be manipulated for political purposes. 
These are two principles to which we can all subscribe. 

It is quite possible that the report of the commission of a 
definite conclusion may be delayed beyond the next session 
of Congress. 

Meanwhile, the members of the commission intend to 
substitute a campaign of education in order to arouse public 
opinion to the necessity of a change in our monetary and 
banking systems, and to the advantages that will arise 
from placing some form of control over the money market 
and the reserve in the hands of an intelligent body of 
financiers responsible to the Government. 

I am told that Mr. Aldrich will "swing around the circle" 
in the present fall, and will lecture in many of the cities 
of the Middle West on the defects and needs of our monetary 
system. I can not too strongly approve of this proposal. 



AND STATE PAPERS 187 

Mr. Aldrich, who is the leader of the Senate, and certainly 
one of the ablest statesmen in financial matters in either 
house, has been regarded with deep suspicion by many 
people, especially in the West. 

If, with his clear-cut ideas and simple but effective style 
of speaking, he makes apparent to the Western people what I 
believe to be his earnest desire to aid the people and to crown 
his political career by the preparation and passage of a bill 
which shall give us a sound and safe monetary and banking 
system, it would be a long step toward removing the political 
obstacles to a proper solution of the question. 

I do not need to arjme with this audience that a change in 
our monetary and banking systems is necessary. You are 
too good business men not to know it, and I sincerely hope 
that the whole force of your association will be exerted to 
insist upon the adoption of a satisfactory system before the 
end of this Administration. 

It is a subject that the general public has very little con- 
ception of, and when they suffer from the radical defects of 
the system they are utterly unable to tell how and why. 
We all need education on the subject. We must all unite 
to mend our roof before the storm and rain shall show us 
again its leaky and utterly inadequate character. 

I am not going to discuss the merits and demerits of the 
new tariff bill with you. I shall have often to refer to that 
before my journey is ended and I must save something for 
other audiences. Suffice it to say that the passage of the bill 
has removed a disturbing element in business. 

Nor shall I dwell at length on the necessity for amendments 
to the interstate-commerce law, to the anti-trust law, and 
the organization of the Departments in Washington with a 
view to promoting greater efficiency and expedition in the 
settlement of controversies arising under them. 

During Mr. Roosevelt's Administration we were all struck 
with the necessity for reform in business methods, for more 
scrupulous attention to the conduct of business in accord- 
ance with the law, and with the necessity for simplifying the 



188 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

law in such a way as to make it clear to corporate managers 
what they can do and what they can not do. 

We are, I believe, unless all signs fail, on the eve of another 
great business expansion, and an era of prosperity. Indeed 
it is already here in many branches of business. 

The hum of prosperity and the ecstasy of great profits 
are likely to dull our interest in these reforms and to lead 
us back again to the old abuses, unless we insist upon legis- 
lation which shall clinch and enforce those standards by 
positive law. 

Nothing revolutionary, nothing disturbing to legitimate 
business is needed; but we must set the marks clear in the 
statute by which the lines can be drawn and the proper 
legitimate paths be laid down upon which all business shall 
proceed, and must have it understood by means of prompt 
prosecution and punishment that the law is for all and is to 
be enforced even against the most powerful. 

Then, too, the needs in respect to the conservation of our 
national resources; the amendment to the public land system; 
the execution of the pure-food law; and all the rest of the 
important matters that should demand attention, make the 
legislative and executive labor of the next three years heavy 
enough, if our purposes are carried out, to exhaust the energy 
of the most enthusiastic and hopeful. 

Still the world is making progress — our country is mak- 
ing progress. Occasionally one hears a note like that of 
Governor Johnson, denouncing the East and calling upon the 
West to organize in a sectional way against the East, because 
the East is deriving more benefit from the governmental 
policy than the West, and at the expense of the West. 

It is difficult for one to treat such an appeal seriously. 
Throughout the country there is free trade of the freest 
character; and due to this the prosperity of the West, espe- 
cially of the agricultural West, is even more pronounced than 
that of the East. 

Moreover, the East is too close to the Pacific Coast, too 
close to the Middle West, too close to the Rocky Mountains, 



AND STATE PAPERS 189 

because all the people of these western stretches have eastern 
ancestry and eastern associations and eastern connections, 
and because they have eastern capital with which their 
sections have been largely built up, and because they are too 
much assisted by eastern markets in enhancing the prices 
which their products bring, to make such an attempt at 
sectionalism successful. 

It is true that at times public questions will be given a 
local color by what is thought to be a local benefit, as dis- 
tinguished from the general and the national benefit. 

But such attitude is generally temporary, and it takes but a 
few years of business experience, it takes but a panic or two, 
to present the most convincing evidence that in this country 
we are all in the? same business boat, and that the prosperity 
of one section adds to the prosperity another, and the 
business disaster in one section is only the forerunner of 
business depression and disaster in another. 

I was born and brought up in the Middle West. I have 
had a New England ancestry and New England associations. 
Fortune threw me out into the Pacific so that I know some- 
thing of the feelings of the West coast. Jurisdiction as a judge 
gave me a somewhat intimate knowledge of Southern feelings 
and Southern aspirations. 

I feel, therefore, as if I could speak with confidence in 
respect to the whole nation, and as President of the United 
States may well lift up my voice to protest against any effort, 
by whomsoever made, to arouse section against section, and 
Americans against Americans. 

Not in the history of the country since the war has the 
feeling between the North and the South been more cordial 
and friendly than it is to-day, and a political attempt to 
make a cleavage between New England and the East on the 
one side and the West on the other, will be found to be so 
utterly hopeless as to confound those who propose it. 

And now, my friends and fellow citizens, as I take my 
departure for the West I feel that I carry from you to every 
citizen and inhabitant of the United States whom I shall meet, 



100 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the cordial greetings of New England and the East, your con- 
gin tul. -it ions on the prospective prosperity in the whole 
country, and an earnest wish that the national Government 
shall be conducted in such a way as to ensure peace with all 
the nations of the world and tranquillity and prosperity at 
home, growing out of the conduct of business on lines of 
commercial integrity and within the law which forbids 
the organization and maintenance of monopolies and the 
systematic suppression of competition. 

Things are not perfect; but we have made progress. We 
have a right to be optimistic and believe that further progress 
is likely; that conditions are improving and that we may 
continue to maintain for all citizens of the country that 
equality of opportunity which it is the highest object of a 
well-conducted Government to preserve. 



XXII 

ADDRESS AT ORCHESTRA HALL, CHICAGO, 
ILLINOIS 

(SEPTEMBER 16, 1909) 

My Felloiv Citizens of Chicago: 

IT IS just about a year ago to-night that I made a speech 
in this hall to some 1,800 members of the railroad labor 
organizations, in which I attempted to convince them that 
there was nothing in my decisions as a Circuit Judge in 
labor injunction cases which ought to make them vote 
against me for the Presidency. It was a critical time in 
the campaign. It was a critical question in the campaign, 
and as I review that whole controversy, there was hardly 
another speech in my campaign of greater importance to 
me than that one; and in view of the result of the election 
I look back upon it now with especial interest. This hall, 
therefore, suggests one of the subjects upon which I shall 
speak to you. 

You will remember perhaps that the head of the Federa- 
tion of Labor, who had declared for my opponent, was 
anxious to carry the whole union labor vote against me, 
and as the ground for his action was my decisions as a 
Judge, I was put under the burden which I think no other 
candidate for the Presidency ever had to bear of explain- 
ing and defending in a political contest the decisions which 
I had made as a Judge upon the Bench. It was assumed 
by many, who thought themselves familiar with the situ- 
ation, that I would lose a part of the labor vote which had 
theretofore been evenly divided between the Republicans 
and the Democrats. The result showed that this assump- 
tion was incorrect and that labor men — union labor 

191 



192 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

as well as non-union labor men — thought for themselves, 
voted according to their own judgment, and declined to be 
delivered as a body to one party or the other; and on the 
whole, I do not think that in that election I suffered materi- 
ally from the loss of labor votes. In the discussions I 
asserted that I was as much interested as any one in main- 
taining the cause of labor, when labor, organized or 
unorganized, by proper methods sought to better its condi- 
tion by legislation or otherwise. I said that I expected 
to recommend to Congress, if I were elected, that inter- 
state railroads be required to adopt any additional devices 
found useful for the purpose of saving from loss of life or 
limb employees engaged in the dangerous business of rail- 
roading. I also said that I favored the adoption of legis- 
lation looking to a proper definition of the cases in which 
preliminary injunctions might issue without notice and 
defining the proper procedure in such matters. Now that 
the election has come and gone, I want to take this oppor- 
tunity of saying that I have not forgotten my own promises 
or those of the platform, and I propose in the next session 
of Congress to recommend the legislation on the subject of 
injunction which was promised in the Republican platform, 
and to see whether by such legislation it is not possible to 
avoid even a few cases of abuses that can be cited against 
the Federal courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction. 

I do not think trades-unionism was greatly aided by the 
attempt to drag all organized labor into politics, and to 
induce it to vote one way; but that does not prevent my 
placing a proper estimate upon the immense good for labor 
in general which its organization and its efforts to secure 
higher wages have accomplished. 

I know there is an element among employers of labor, 
and investors of capital which is utterly opposed to the 
organization of labor. I can not sympathize with this 
element in the slightest degree. I think it is a wise course 
for laborers to unite to defend their interests. It is a wise 
course for them to provide a fund by which, should occasion 



AND STATE PAPERS 103 

arise and strikes or lock-outs follow, those who lose their 
places may be supported pending an adjustment of the 
difficulties. I think the employer who declines to deal with 
organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element 
in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times. 
There is not the slightest doubt that if labor had remained 
unorganized, wages would be very much lower. It is true 
that in the end they would probably be fixed by the law of 
supply and demand, but generally before this law mani- 
fests itself, there is a period in which labor, if organized 
and acting together, can compel the employer promptly 
to recognize the change of conditions, and advance wages 
to meet the rising market and increase in profits; and on 
the other hand can delay the too quick impulse of the 
employer facing a less prosperous future to economize by 
reducing wages. 

There is a higher standard of living among American 
laborers than in any country in the world, and while there 
have doubtless been a good many other reasons for this, 
certainly the effect of the organization of labor has been 
to maintain a steady and high rate of wages making such a 
standard of living possible. 

Nothing I have said, or shall say, should be construed 
into an attitude of criticism against, or unfriendliness to 
those workingmcn who for any reason do not join unions. 
Their right to labor for such wages as they choose to accept 
is sacred, and any lawless invasion of that right can not be 
too severely condemned. All advantages of trades-union- 
ism, great as they are, cannot weigh a feather in the scale 
against the right of any man lawfully seeking employment 
to work for whom and at what price he will. And I say this 
with all the emphasis possible even though the fact is that, 
if I were a workingman, I should probably deem it wise 
to join a union for the reasons given. 

The effect of organized labor upon such abuses as the 
employment of child labor, as the exposure of laborers 
to undue risk in dangerous employments, to the continuance 



194 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of unjust rules of law exempting employers from liability 
for accidents to laborers, has been [direct, immediate and 
useful, and such reforms in those matters as have taken 
place would probably be long delayed but for the energetic 
agitation of the questions by the representatives of organ- 
ized labor. Of course, when organized labor permits 
itself to sympathize with violent methods, with breaches 
of the law, with boycotts and other methods of undue duress, 
it is not entitled to our sympathy. But it is not to be expected 
that such organizations shall be perfect, and that they may 
not at times and in particular cases show defective tenden- 
cies that ought to be corrected. 

One notable defect which has been pointed out has been 
in the disposition of the majority of members in labor 
unions to reduce the compensation of all men engaged 
in a particular trade to a dead level, and to fail to recognize 
the difference between the highly skilled and very industri- 
ous workman and the one only less skilled and less indus- 
trious. I think that there is a movement among trades- 
unions themselves to correct this levelling tendency, and 
nothing could strengthen the movement more than the adop- 
tion of some plan by which there should remain among 
union workmen the impetus and motive to be found in the 
greater reward for greater skill and greater industry. 

There is one thing to be said in respect to American 
trades-unionism that its critics are not generally alive 
to. In France the trades-unions are intensely socialistic. 
Indeed, in some of the late difficulties it was plain that there 
was a strong anarchistic feeling among them and that they 
opposed all authority of any kind. It is also plain that the 
tendency toward socialism in England and England's 
trades-unionism is growing stronger and stronger. I need 
not point out the deplorable results in this country if trades- 
unionism became a synonym for socialism. Those who are 
now in active control, the Federation of Labor and all the 
great railroad organizations, have set their faces like flint 
against the propagandism of socialistic principles. They 



AND STATE PAPERS 195 

are in favor of the rights of property and of our present 
institutions modified by such remedial legislation as to put 
workingmen on equality with their opponents in trade 
controversies and trade contracts and to stamp out the mono- 
poly and the corporate abuses which are an outgrowth of 
our present system unaccompanied by proper limitation; 
and I think all of us who are in favor of the maintenance 
of our present institutions should recognize this battle which 
has been carried on by the conservative and influential 
members of trades-unionism, and willingly give credit to 
these men as the champions of a cause which should com- 
mand our sympathy, respect and support. 

Our friends of the great unions at times complain of our 
courts, more perhaps because of the decisions in injunc- 
tion cases than for anything else. I have already referred 
to this particular phase of litigation in which they have an 
interest, but when the subject of courts is mentioned it 
suggests to me a larger field for complaint and reform in 
which all citizens are interested and have a right to be heard. 

There is no subject upon which I feel so deeply as upon 
the necessity for reform in the administration of both civil 
and criminal law. To sum it all up in one phrase, the 
difficulty in both is undue delay. It is not too much to 
say that the administration of criminal law in this country 
is a disgrace to our civilization, and that the prevalence of 
crime and fraud, which here is greatly in excess of that 
in the European countries, is due largely to the failure of 
the law and its administrators to bring criminals to justice. 
I am sure that this failure is not due to corruption of officials. 
It is not due to their negligence or laziness, though of course 
there may be both in some cases; but it is chiefly due to 
the system against which it is impossible for an earnest 
prosecutor and an efficient judge to struggle. We inherited 
our system of criminal prosecutions and the constitutional 
provisions for the protection of the accused in his trial from 
England and her laws. We inherited from her the jury 
trials. All these limitations and the jury system are still 



196 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

maintained in England, but they have not interfered with 
an effective prosecution of criminals and their punishment. 
There has not been undue delay in English criminal courts. 
In this country we have generally altered the relation of the 
judge to the jury. In England the judge controls the trial, 
controls the lawyers, keeps them to relevant and proper 
argument, aids the jury in its consideration of the facts, 
not by direction but by suggestion, and the lawyers in the 
conduct of the cases are made to feel that they have an obli- 
gation not only to their clients but also to the court and to 
the public at large not to abuse their offices in such a way as 
unduly to lengthen the trial and unduly to direct the atten- 
tion of the court and the jury away from the real facts at 
issue. In this country there seems to have been on the part 
of all State legislatures a fear of the judge and not of the jury, 
and the power which he exercises in an English court has 
by legislation been reduced from time to time until now, 
and this is especially true in Western States, he has hardly 
more power than the moderator in a religious assembly. 
The tendency of legislation is to throw the reins on the back 
of the jury and to let them follow their own sweet will, influ- 
enced by all the arts of counsel for the defendant in leading 
them away from the real points at issue, and in awakening 
their emotions of pity for the defendant in forgetfulness 
of the wrongs of the prosecuting witness, or it may be of 
the deceased, and of the rights of society to be protected 
against crime, and all these defects are emphasized in the 
delays which occur in the trials — delays made necessary 
because the trials take so great a time. A murder case in 
England will be disposed of in a day or two days that here 
will take three weeks or a month, and no one can say, after 
an examination of the record in England, that the rights of 
the defendant have not been preserved and that justice has 
not been done. It is true that in England they have enlarged 
the procedure to the point of allowing an appeal from a 
judgment in a criminal case to a court of appeals, but this 
appeal is usually taken and allowed only on a few questions 



AND STATE PAPERS 197 

easily considered by the court above and promptly decided. 
Counsel are not permitted to mouse through the record 
to find errors that in the trial seemed of little account, but 
that are developed into great injustices in the court of 
appeal. This is another defect of our procedure. No 
criminal is content with a judgment of the court below, 
and well may he not be because the record of reversals is 
so great as to encourage it in every case and to hang important 
judgments in appellate proceedings sometimes for years. 
I don't know when the reforms are to be brought about in 
this country. Until our people shall become fully aware 
and in some concrete way be made to suffer from the escape 
of criminals from just judgment in this country, the system 
may continue. One of the methods by which it could be 
remedied in some degree is to give judges more power in 
the trial of criminal causes and enable them to aid the jury 
in its consideration of facts and to exercise more control 
over the arguments that counsel see fit to advance. Judges, 
and especially judges who are elected, ought not to be mis- 
trusted by the people. A judgeship is a great office and the 
man who holds it should exercise great power and he ought 
to be allowed to exercise that in a trial by jury. Then it 
is undoubtedly true that in England, lawyers in the conduct 
of their cases feel much more and respect much more their 
obligations to assist the court in administering justice and 
restrain themselves from adopting the desperate and extreme 
methods for which American lawyers are even applauded. 
The trial here is a game in which the advantage is with 
the criminal, and if he wins he seems to have the sym- 
pathy of a sporting public. Trial by jury, as it has come 
to us through the Constitution, is the trial by jury under 
the English law, and under the law the vagaries, the weak- 
nesses, the timidities and the ignorance of juries were to 
be neutralized by the presence in court of a judge to whom 
they should look for instruction upon the law and sound 
advice in respect to the facts, although of course with regard 
to the facts their ultimate conclusion must be their own, 



198 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and they were fully at liberty to disregard the judicial sug- 
gestion. 

But reform in our criminal procedure is not the only 
reform that we ought to have in our courts. On the civil 
side of the courts there is undue delay, and this always 
works for the benefit of the man with the longest purse. 
The employment of lawyers and the payment of costs all 
become more expensive as the litigation is extended. It 
used to be thought that a system by which cases involving 
small amounts could be carried to the Supreme Court through 
two or three courts of intermediate appeal was a perfect 
system, because it gave the poor man the same right to go 
to the Supreme Court as the rich man. Nothing is further 
from the truth. What the poor man needs is a prompt 
decision of his case and by limiting the appeals in cases 
involving small amounts of money so that there shall be a 
final decision in the lower court, an opportunity is given 
to the poor litigant to secure a judgment in time to enjoy 
it and not after he has exhausted all his resources in liti- 
gating to the Supreme Court. 

I am a lawyer and admire my profession, but I must 
admit that we have had too many lawyers in legislating on 
legal procedure, and they have been prone to think 
that litigants were made for the purpose of furnishing busi- 
ness to courts and lawyers, and not courts and lawyers for 
the benefit of the people and litigants. More than this, 
I am bound to say that in the matter of reducing the cost 
of litigation, and, indeed, the time of it, Congress and the 
Federal courts have not set a good example. Probably 
under the Constitution it is impossible in the Federal courts 
to unite suits at law and cases in equity in one form of 
action, as has been done in the codes of the States, but it 
certainly is possible to introduce a simpler form of pro- 
cedure both in suits in law and suits in equity. This last 
form of procedure — that is, equity — has been entirely 
in the control of the courts and especially the Supreme 
Court, and yet in years no real reform has taken place in 



AND STATE PAPERS 199 

that regard, and the procedure is just about as clumsy, 
just about as expensive, just about as likely to produce delay 
as it was thirty or forty years ago. The fact that no reform 
has been instituted may perhaps be due to the circumstance 
that our judges have been overloaded with work in the 
Supreme Court, and thus opportunity has not been seized 
for this reform. But I conceive that the situation is now 
ripe for the appointment of a commission by Congress to 
take up the question of the law's delays in the Federal courts 
and to report a system which shall not only secure quick and 
cheap justice to the litigants in the Federal courts but shall 
offer a model to the legislatures and courts of the States by 
the use of which they can themselves institute reforms. 

I would abolish altogether the system of payment of court 
officers by fee. The fee system may be properly continued 
for the reimbursement of the public treasury by litigants 
specially interested, but the fees ought to be reduced to the 
lowest point and the motive for increasing the expense of 
litigation that arises from the payment of the compensation 
of court officers out of fees should be removed. I do not 
think that the delays in justice are due to any niggardliness 
on the part of the public in appropriating money to meet 
the expenses of administration. The evil lies deeper in the 
system which I have referred to only in a most summary 
way. 

Of all the questions that are before the American people 
I regard no one as more important than this, to wit, the 
improvement of the administration of justice. We must 
make it so that the poor man will have as nearly as possible 
an opportunity in litigating as the rich man, and under pre- 
sent conditions, ashamed as we may be of it, this is not the 
fact. 

And now, my friends, I have subjected you to a rather 
solemn discussion of a rather solemn subject. 

I always like to visit Chicago because it is in a sense the 
center of the country. Much more than Boston is it the 
hub about which many people and many interests revolve. 



200 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

In making up the personnel of my Cabinet and my admin- 
istration I have been surprised to find how many admirable 
men you have in your community, and I must apologize 
for the drain which I have made upon your resources by 
calling to Washington and foreign courts at least half a 
dozen of your most prominent and able citizens. In doing 
so I had to ask them all to make personal sacrifices in the 
matter of compensation and to gather their reward from dis- 
interested desire to serve the public and a patriotic willing- 
ness to put their abilities at the disposition of the country. 
We are entering now upon an era of prosperity which I 
hope will be long continued. We have just passed a tariff 
bill which has ended for the time the disturbance of busi- 
ness that always arises from the consideration and agitation 
over such a bill, and there is nothing now to prevent the 
application of all the capital and all the forces which have 
been suspended for the last year and a half or two years 
by a lack of confidence and a waiting for such settlement, 
to the expansion of business and the further development 
of the resources of this country. But this prospect of 
prosperity must not blind us to the necessity for carrying 
out certain great reforms advocated by Mr. Roosevelt, 
recommended in the Republican party platform, which I 
believe are needed to prevent a return to the abuses of which 
all men recognize the evil in our previous business methods 
and the management of our great corporations. I expect 
to consider these questions more at length at another stage 
in my journey, as I do also the character of the tariff bill 
which has been adopted and which has been subjected to 
much criticism, but to-night I feel that I have wearied you 
far beyond any claim I have had to your attention. 



XXIII 

ADDRESS AT THE STATE FAIR GROUNDS, 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 

(SEPTEMBER 17, 1909) 

Mr. President, Governor, Senators, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
and Citizens of Wisconsin : 

I AM only too conscious of my lack of experience and 
knowledge in the presence of farmers. You have 
a Governor who is a farmer. You have Senators who are 
farmers. I think all your business men must be farmers 
if I can judge by the crowd that greets me here. I must 
admit that I am a city-bred man, and while the spirit would 
be willing I am afraid I could not milk a cow. Neverthe- 
less, he must be blind indeed to the interests of his country, 
he must be lacking indeed in acquaintance with the progress 
of the world who does not realize what, in the fifty years 
since that noble patriot, Abraham Lincoln, stood here, has 
been accomplished in the way of improvement of agriculture 
and scientific investigation into the methods of breeding 
and into the methods of treating the soil. But I do not 
intend to occupy your time in discussing something that you 
know a great deal better than I do. I want to get on to 
something that perhaps we are both equally ignorant of, 
but which it will help us to discuss. 

Something was said about a man's being a ruler and a 
servant of the people. I have had occasion to say a number 
of times that it is perhaps true that the President of the 
United States has a great deal of power, but while he is in 
office the thing that strikes him is the limitations and the 
difficulties of exercising that power. The real power is 
in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. But 

201 



202 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the man who gets the blame for everything is the fellow at 
the top. Now, parties make platforms. They are said to 
be, in the language of the cynical, something to get in on 
but not to stand on. Our party, if I may make a partisan 
reference when I am here only in a non-partisan capacity — 
the Republican party agreed that we ought to have an insti- 
tution, the benefit and virtue of which I wish to discuss 
this morning, in the shape of postal-savings banks. We 
heard discussed in the Senate last winter the question of 
how planks were introduced into a party platform, and 
when they grew a little burdensome to carry out, it was 
said that they were put in at three o'clock in the morning 
when more than half the convention were asleep, and when 
the minority was awake enough to push them in. I don't 
mean to say that the question of postal-savings banks binds 
every one who calls himself a Republican — I don't mean that 
a plank binds every one who calls himself a Republican — 
because that is not the kind of people the Americans are. 
If they do not like a plank in a platform, or if they do not 
like the platform, they cease to be Republicans, or they 
are Republicans with an exception, and that indicates a 
free, enlightened and discriminating people. But I am 
here to uphold the doctrine of postal-savings banks, because 
I believe that they will fill in this country a long-felt want. 
In the first place I want to describe a little bit what it 
was proposed to put into the savings-bank law, in order 
that you may understand something about which we are 
speaking. It was proposed to make every money-order 
office in the United States, of which there are 40,000, and 
such other post offices as the Postmaster General might 
think fit, postal-savings banks. It was proposed to allow 
anybody to deposit there a dollar or anything more than a 
dollar, in multiples of ten cents. It was proposed to limit 
the amount of the deposit in any one month to $200, and 
to limit the amount of total deposits to $1,000, and to agree 
to pay interest at the rate of 2 per cent, on not more than 
$500. The money thus accumulated was to be invested 



AND STATE PAPERS 203 

by a committee consisting of the Postmaster- General, the 
Attorney- General and the Secretary of the Treasury, either 
in the neighboring national bank in the county, or if there 
was no such bank, in the nearest national bank, or if that 
was impracticable, in State, county or Federal bonds. They 
were required to secure in everything but Federal bonds 
2J per cent, annually. Now, our friends the bankers — 
and they are friends; I am not attacking them. It is not 
wise to attack bankers either, for really we have a right to 
be proud of our banking fraternity. — But there are a good 
many who object to the postal-savings banks on a number 
of grounds, and I wish to take up those objections. 

In the first place it is said that the postal-savings bank 
is a very paternal institution; that it has a leaning toward 
State socialism, and that it proposes to take the banking 
business out of the hands of private persons and put it in those 
of the Government. Now I am not a paternalist, and I am 
not a socialist, and I am not in favor of having the Gov- 
ernment do anything that private citizens can do as well, 
or better. We have passed beyond the time of what they 
call the laisser-faire school which believes that the Govern- 
ment ought to do nothing but run a police force. We do 
recognize the interference of the government because it has 
great capital and great resources behind it, and because 
sometimes it can stand the lack of an immediate return 
on capital and help out. We did it in our Pacific roads. 
We have done it in a great many different ways, and this 
particular postal-savings banks business is a business which 
the government is especially fitted to do, and which no 
system of private banks can do. In the first place they have 
this great organization of the post officej with skilled employ- 
ees sprinkled all over this country in every nook and cranny 
of it. Whether there are many people or few, the post 
offices have to be maintained. Therefore it will be a most 
economic means of establishing a system of savings banks 
merely to add one function to the duty of the postmasters 
all through this country. It can be done most cheaply. 



204 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The Government can afford it and nobody else could do it. 
It is said that we have enough banking in this country 
and therefore we ought not to put the Government into it. 
It is said, moreover, that if we did put the Government 
into it, it would not be very long before the Government 
would do all the banking, discounting and everything else, 
and the bankers would be driven out of business. I don't 
think that that argument amounts to much. It is to say 
that the American people have not sense enough to discrimi- 
nate between what is a right use of the post office and what 
is a right thing to do with reference to savings banks and 
the going into the general business of discounting and bank- 
ing which the government has no business to do. I believe 
in the discriminating sense of the American people to know 
the degree to which they ought to go in a good thing and 
then to know that when they get beyond it, it becomes a 
bad thing. To say that if the people go into one good thing, 
they are necessarily going to get into something which is 
not good, is to question the intelligence and the discrimi- 
nation of our people, and I don't propose to do it. 

Let us see about banking and the amount that the people 
of the United States have in the way of opportunities to 
deposit money. In 14 States the deposits of savings banks 
amount to $3,000,000,000. I won't say that in those States 
there was a crushing demand for postal-savings banks, 
although even there they would discharge a certain function, 
but when you come to consider the other 32 States and terri- 
tories, the deposits are only $70,000,000. In other words, 
98 per cent, of all the deposits in the savings banks in the 
country are in 14 States, which tends to show conclusively 
that in the 32 States the banking facilities — at least the 
savings-bank facilities — for the deposit of funds to encour- 
age thrift on the part of the people are very inadequate, 
and it is in those States that we expect, if the postal-savings 
bank system is put in, that the people will be induced to 
save more money instead of spending it, or instead of putting 
it into the sock where it does not do much good until it is 



AND STATE PAPERS 205 

withdrawn. Now, in New England in the savings banks 
there are two citizens to one savings-bank account. In 
every other part of the United States the savings-bank 
accounts are one to every 157 people, which tends to show 
the concentration of savings-bank deposits in the East. 
Another fact showing the need for such a system is that 
to-day in the distant States to which I have referred there 
are $8,000,000 deposited by men who take out money orders 
and just leave the money in the money-order office of the 
post office without drawing any interest at all. They just 
put it there because they don't know where else to put it, 
which is an indication that they ought to have some place 
where they can put it and draw some interest. Our new 
citizens send abroad every year over $90,000,000, and a 
very large proportion of that goes into the savings banks 
abroad. Our new immigrants when they come here are 
distrustful of the local banks, they are distrustful of the 
private savings-deposit banks, and what they want is a gov- 
ernment guaranty in order to secure to them the certainty 
that when they want their money, they can get it. They 
are not so insistent on the rate of interest as they are on the 
certainty of getting their money back, and if they have the 
government guaranty that they will get it, they can be counted 
upon rather to deposit their money than to waste it. The 
great usefulness of the postal-savings bank is an encourage- 
ment of thrift on the part of those who are just wavering 
in the balance whether they shall save the money or spend 
it, because they do not know where they can put it safely. 
It is said that this will interfere with the system of savings 
banks and other banks. I most urgently deny that, because 
we only propose to pay 2 per cent, and every savings bank 
that you know pays at least three and sometimes three and 
one-half or four. Therefore, those who put their money 
in a postal-savings bank at 2 per cent, are not those who 
would be likely to put the money in a savings bank at three. 
Instead of that it will furnish more money to the savings 
banks, and I will tell you how, and I will tell you this in 



200 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

confidence, because this is the way it is worked in other 
countries. You stir up a lot of people to begin to save money 
and put it in at 2 per cent, and they put it in there because 
they know they can get the money back. That is the 
whole idea they have at first, but after they begin to 
calculate what a low rate two per cent, is they begin to look 
around; they learn for themselves; they acquire some 
discrimination, and they understand that in the neighbor- 
ing bank they can get 3 or 3^ per cent. They acquire 
more intelligence and more knowledge in respect to the 
matter and then they begin to estimate the security of the 
private or State savings bank. Under these conditions 
this fund, which never would have come at all, will be avail- 
able for the savings banks as the intelligence of the depositor 
grows greater and as his willingness to risk a little more in 
order to get a little more interest becomes more acute. We 
are not usually backward in adopting new and proper 
assistance to our people and to the government, but we may 
look abroad frequently to learn lessons in the matter of 
finance, and even in the matter of some departments of the 
Government. I want to read you a list of the countries 
that have postal-savings banks. Let me first say, in Italy 
there are $273,000,000 deposited in the postal- savings 
banks of the country. In Russia $130,000,000; in Great 
Britain and Ireland $706,000,000; in Canada $47,000,000; 
in Japan $47,000,000. Now, I want to refer to Canada. 
Canada has postal-savings banks and what is the result 
along the border up in the Northwest ? You find Americans 
going over the border and making deposits in those savings 
banks. Why ? Because they have the guarantee of the 
Canadian Government. Now, it is right that when the Gov- 
ernment takes custody of money it should agree to return 
it. It is upon the agreement to return that the basis of the 
postal-savings bank may be put. There are postal-savings 
banks in Austria, Belgium, Japan, France, Hungary, Italy, 
Holland, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland, Baha- 
mas, Canada, India, Ceylon, Straits Settlements, Cape 



AND STATE PAPERS 207 

Colony, Tasmania, Western Australia, New Zealand and 
the Gold Coast, and I may add in the Philippines, because 
I had something to do with putting them there. In Germany 
they do not have them, but they have a system of town and 
provincial banks which fills the measure of the demand. 

You know we have issued upward of $700,000,000 of 
l 2 per cent, bonds of the United States, and we have prided 
ourselves, and our heads have been a little bit swelled on the 
theory, that we could float bonds at 2 percent, and no other 
country could. We did float those at par at 2 per cent. — 
I don't know but that it was a little more — but we did it 
by getting the banks into a corner so that they had to have 
under the law some government security, and so they were 
obliged to buy those 2 per cent, bonds. Now they are liable 
to be on the market. We have to take care of them in some 
way. We have got to prevent their going down below 
par because the normal interest rate that a government can 
get is quite above 2 per cent. — somewhere between 2 and 3 
per cent., and if we have the postal-savings banks, if we 
have a large fund of $.500,000,000 to $000,000,000 or 
$700,000,000, as we may expect to have in view of what 
has happened in Great Britain, we can use that fund to put 
in Government bonds and take care of that issue, which is 
our child and which after all we ought not to be so proud 
of, because we fooled the world into thinking that we were 
getting something at 2 per cent, and that our credit was 
worth that, when as a matter of fact we were forcing the 
banking fraternity into taking them because of certain 
other advantage's which they had to have. It was just a 
little sharp game which the Government played, and it is 
necessary that in any legislation which comes along we 
should take care of that issue of 2 per cent, before issuing 
any more bonds at a higher rate. 

I observed yesterday in the convention of bankers the 
proposition was urgently and ably fought. Nevertheless, 
it seems to me, looking at it from a larger field of view 
possibly than bankers can have, because we are all subject 



208 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to the prejudices of our profession — I am a lawyer, and I 
know I am prejudiced as a lawyer, and I think bankers 
are likely to be prejudiced as bankers; nevertheless, I believe 
that the arguments in favor of instituting such a system, 
backed up by the experience of so many other nations as 
those I have named to you, justify our going into the business 
of encouraging our people by something that will be inex- 
pensive to the Government, encouraging our people, those 
of them who have not the sense of security in private banks, 
encouraging them to a thrift and furnishing the means by 
which they shall save on small interest. We are looking 
forward, I hope, with confidence, to a readjustment of our 
whole financial and banking system. Certainly it needs it, 
and it has been suggested that the postal-savings bank 
might well await that. I am bound to say that I do not 
see the necessity for uniting them. It seems to me that 
one system can stand by itself, and if we adopt the postal- 
savings bank it would be easily worked into a general system 
of banking because those savings banks will furnish us 
$500,000,000 or $600,000,000, and that is a very tidy pile 
to have around for the Government to use legitimately in 
order to carry on 4ny financial operations. 



XXIV 

TARIFF SPEECH 

(DELIVERED AT WINONA, MINN., SEPTEMBER 17, 1909) 

My Fellow Citizens: 

AS LONG ago as August, 1906, in the Congressional 
campaign in Maine, I ventured to announce that I 
was a tariff revisionist and thought that the time had come 
for readjustment of the schedules. I pointed out that it 
had been ten years prior to that time that the Dingley Bill 
had been passed; that great changes had taken place in 
the conditions surrounding the productions of the farm, 
the factory, and the mine, and that under the theory of pro- 
tection in that time the rates imposed in the Dingley Bill 
in many instances might have become excessive; that is, 
might have been greater than the difference between the 
cost of production abroad and the cost of production at home 
with a sufficient allowance for a reasonable rate of profit 
to the American producer. I said that the party was divided 
on the issue, but that in my judgment the opinion of the 
partv was crystallizing and would probably result in the near 
future in an effort to make such revision. I pointed out 
the difficulty that there always was in a revision of the 
tariff, due to the threatened disturbance of industries to be 
affected and the suspension of business, in a way which 
made it unwise to have too many revisions. In the summer 
of 1907 my position on the tariff was challenged, and I then 
entered into a somewhat fuller discussion of the matter. 
It was contended by the so-called "standpatters" that rates 
beyond the necessary measure of protection were not objec- 
tionable, because behind the tariff wall competition always 
reduced the prices, and thus saved the consumer. But I 

209 



210 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

pointed out in that speech what seems to me as true to-day 
as it then was, that the danger of excessive rates was in 
the temptation they created to form monopolies in the pro- 
tected articles, and thus to take advantage of the excessive 
rates by increasing the prices, and therefore, and in order 
to avoid such a danger, it was wise at regular intervals 
to examine the question of what the effect of the rates 
had been upon the industries in this country, and 
whether the conditions with respect to the cost of 
production here had so changed as to warrant a reduction 
in the tariff, and to make a lower rate truly protective of the 
industry. 

It will be observed that the object of the revision under 
such a statement was not to destroy protected industries 
in this country, but it was to continue to protect them 
where lower rates offered a sufficient protection to prevent 
injury by foreign competition. That was the object 
of the revision as advocated by me, and it was certainly 
the object of the revision as promised in the Republican 
platform. 

I want to make as clear as I can this proposition, because, 
in order to determine whether a bill is a compliance with 
the terms of that platform, it must be understood what the 
platform means. A free trader is opposed to any protect- 
ive rate because he thinks that our manufacturers, our 
farmers, and our miners ought to withstand the competi- 
tion of foreign manufacturers and miners and farmers, 
or else go out of business and find something else more 
profitable to do. Now, certainly the promises of the plat- 
form did not contemplate the downward revision of the 
tariff rates to such a point that any industry theretofore 
protected should be injured. Hence, those who contend 
that the promise of the platform was to reduce prices by 
letting in foreign competition are contending for a free 
trade and not for anything that they had the right to infer 
from the Republican platform. 

The Ways and Means Committee of the House, with 



AND STATE PAPERS 211 

Mr. Payne- at its head, spent a full year in an investigation, 
assembling evidence in reference to the rates under the 
tariff, and devoted an immense amount of work to the study 
of the question where the tariff rates could be reduced and 
where thev ought to be raised with a view to maintaining 
a reasonably protective rate, under the principles 
of the platform, for every industry that deserved protection. 
They found that the determination of the question, 
what was the actual cost of production and whether 
an industry in this country could live under a certain 
rate and withstand threatened competition from abroad, 
was most difficult. The manufacturers were prone to 
exaggerate the injury which a reduction in the duty 
would give and to magnify the amount of duty that was 
needed; while the importers, on the other hand, who were 
interested in developing the importation from foreign 
shores, were quite likely to be equally biased on the 
other side. 

Mr. Payne reported a bill — the Payne tariff bill — which 
went to the Senate and was amended in the Senate by increas- 
ing the duty on some things and decreasing it on others. 
The difference between the House bill and the Senate bill 
was very much less than the newspapers represented. It 
turns out upon examination that the reductions in the 
Senate were about equal to those in the House, though they 
differed in character. Now. there is nothing quite so dif- 
ficult as the discussion of a tariff bill, for the reason that 
it covers so many different items, and the meaning of the 
terms and the percentages are very hard to understand. 
The passage of a new bill, especially where a change in the 
method of assessing the duties has been followed, presents 
an opportunity for various modes and calculations of the 
percentages of increases and decreases that are most mis- 
leading and really throw no light at all upon the changes 
made. 

One way of stating what was done is to say what the facts 
show — that under the Dingley law there were 2,024 items. 



212 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

This included dutiable items only. The Payne law leaves 
1,150 of these items unchanged. There are decreases in 
654 of the items and increases in 220 of the items. Now, 
of course, that does not give a full picture, but it does show 
the proportion of decreases to have been three times those 
of the increases. Again, the schedules are divided into 
letters from A to N. The first schedule is that of chemi- 
cals, oils, etc. There are 232 items in the Dingley law; 
of these, 81 were decreased, 22 were increased, leaving 129 
unchanged. Under Schedule B — earths, earthenware and 
glassware — there were 170 items in the Dingley law; 46 
were decreased, 12 were increased, and 112 left unchanged. 
C is the schedule of metals and manufactures. There were 
321 items in the Dingley law; 185 were decreased, 30 were 
increased, and 106 were left unchanged. D is the schedule 
of wood and manufactures of wood. There were 35 items 
in the Dingley law; 18 were decreased, 3 were increased, 
and 14 were left unchanged. There were 38 items in sugar, 
and of these 2 were decreased and 36 left unchanged. Sched- 
ule F covers tobacco and manufactures of tobacco, of which 
there were 8 items; they were all left unchanged. In the 
schedule covering agricultural products and provisions 
there were 187 items in the Dingley law; 14 of them were 
decreased, 19 were increased, and 154 left unchanged. 
Schedule H — that of spirits and wines — contained 33 
items in the Dingley law; 4 were decreased, 23 increased, 
and 6 were left unchanged. In cotton manfactures there 
were 261 items; of these 28 were decreased, 47 increased, 
and 186 left unchanged. In Schedule J — flax, hemp, 
and jute — there were 254 items in the Dingley law; 
187 were reduced, 4 were increased, and 63 left unchanged. 
In wool, and manfactures thereof, there were 78 items; 
3 were decreased, none were increased, and 75 left un- 
changed. In silk and silk goods there were 78 items; 
of these, 21 were decreased, 31 were increased, and 26 were 
left unchanged. In pulp, papers, and books there were 
59 items in the Dingley law, and of these 11 were decreased, 



AND STATE PAPERS 



211 



9 were increased, and 39 left unchanged. In sundries 
there were 270 items, and of these 54 were decreased, 20 
were increased, and 196 left unchanged. So that the total 
showed 2,024 items in the Dingley law, of which 654 were 
decreased, 220 were increased, making 874 changes, and 
1,150 left unchanged. 



Schedules. 



A- Chemicals, oils, etc. 

B. Earths, earthenware and glassware - 
C Metals, and manufactures of 

D. Wood, and manufactures of 

E. Sugar, molasses, and manufactures of 

F. Tobacco, and manufactures of ... . 

G. Agricultural products and provisions 

H, Spirits, wines, etc 

I. Cotton manufactures 

J. Flax, hemp, jute, and manufactures of 

K. Wool, and manufactures of 

L. Silk and silk goods 

M. Pulp, papers and books 

N. Sundries 



Total 



Items 



Dingle} 
law. 



2:32 

170 

S21 

35 

88 
8 

1ST 

S3 

261 

.'.vt 
78 
7s 
59 

270 



Changes in Dingley law 
by Payne law. 



De- 
creases. 



In- 
creases. 



81 
46 
185 

18 
2 


14 

t 

28 
187 
3 
21 
II 
SI 



Total 
change; 



Un- 
changed 



215 

21 



129 

112 

106 

14 



15+ 
6 

186 
6:5 
75 
26 
39 

196 



Attempts have been made to show what the real effect 
of these changes has been by comparing the imports under 
the various schedules, and assuming that the changes and 
their importance were in proportion to the importations. 
Nothing could be more unjust in a protective tariff which 
also contains revenue provisions. Some of the tariff is 
made for the purpose of increasing the revenue by increas- 
ing importations which shall pay duty. Other items in 
the tariff are made for the purpose of reducing competition, 
that is, by reducing importations, and, therefore, the ques- 
tion of the importance of a change in rate can not in the 
slightest degree be determined by the amount of imports 
that take place. In order to determine the importance of 
the changes, it is much fairer to take the articles on which 



214 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the rates of duty have been reduced and those on which the 
rates of duty have been increased, and then determine 
from statistics how large a part the articles upon which 
duties have been reduced play in the consumption of the 
country, and how large a part those upon which the duties 
have been increased play in the consumption of the country. 
Such a table has been prepared by Mr. Payne, than whom 
there is no one who understands better what the tariff is 
and who has given more attention to the details of the 
schedule. 

Now, let us take Schedule A — chemicals, oils, and 
paints. The articles upon which the duty has been decreased 
are consumed in this country to the extent of $433,000,000. 
The articles upon which the duty has been increased are 
consumed in this country to the extent of $11,000,000. 
Take Schedule B. The articles on which the duty has been 
decreased enter into the consumption of the country to the 
amount of $128,000,000, and there has been no increase 
in duty on such articles. Take Schedule C — metals and 
their manufactures. The amount to which such articles 
enter into the consumption of the country is $1,221,000,000, 
whereas the articles of the same schedule upon which there 
has been an increase enter into the consumption of the 
country to the extent of only $37,000,000. Take Schedule 
D — lumber. The articles in this schedule upon which 
there has been a decrease enter into the consumption of 
the country to the extent of $56G,000,000, whereas the 
articles under the same schedule upon which there has been 
an increase enter into its consumption to the extent of 
$31,000,000. In tobacco there has been no change. In 
agricultural products, those in which there has been a reduc- 
tion of rates enter into the consumption of the country 
to the extent of $483,000,000; those in which there has 
been an increase enter into the consumption to the extent 
of $4,000,000. In the schedule of wines and liquors, the 
articles upon which there has been an increase, enter into 
the consumption of the country to the extent of $462,000,000. 



AND STATE PAPERS 215 

In cottons there has been a change in the higher-priced 
cottons and an increase. There has been no increase in 
the lower-priced cottons, and of the increases the high- 
priced cottons enter into the consumption of the country 
to the extent of $41,000,000. Schedule J — flax, hemp, 
and jute: The articles upon which there has been a decrease 
enter into the consumption of the country to the extent of 
$22,000,000, while those upon which there has been an 
increase enter into the consumption to the extent of $804,000. 
In Schedule K, as to wool, there has been no change. In 
Schedule L, as to silk, the duty has been decreased on articles 
which enter into the consumption of the country to the extent 
of $8,000,000, and has been increased on articles that enter 
into the consumption of the country to the extent of 
$106,000,000. On paper and pulp the duty has been 
decreased on articles, including print paper, that enter 
into the consumption of the country to the extent of 
$67,000,000, and increased on articles that enter into the 
consumption of the country to the extent of $81,000,000. 
In sundries, or Schedule X, the duty has been decreased on 
articles that enter into the consumption of the country to 
the extent of $1,719,000,000; and increased on articles that 
enter into the consumption of the country to the extent of 
$101,000,000. 

It will be found that in Schedule A the increases covered 
only luxuries — perfumeries, pomades, and like articles; 
Schedule II — wines and liquors — which are certainly 
luxuries and are made subject to increase in order to increase 
the revenues, amounting to $462,000,000; and in Schedule 
L — silks — which are luxuries, certainly, $106,000,000, 
making a total of the consumption of those articles upon 
which there was an increase and which were luxuries of 
$579,000,000, leaving a balance of increase on articles which 
were not luxuries of value in consumption of only 
$272,000,000, as against $5,000,000,000, representing the 
amount of articles entering into the consumption of 
the country, mostly necessities, upon which there has 



21G 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 



been a reduction of duties, and to which the 650 decreases 
applied. 

Statement 



Sched- 
ule. 



Article. 



Chemicals, oils, and paints 

Earths, earthenware, and glassware 

Metals, and manufactures of 

Wood, and manufactures of 

Sugar, molasses, and manufactures of 

Tobacco, and manufactures of (no change of rates) 

Agricultural products and provisions 

Spirits, wines, and other beverages 

Cotton manufactures 

Flax, hemp, jute, and manufactures of 

Wool, and manufactures of wool. (No production 
statistics available for articles affected by 
changes of rates) 

Silks and silk goods 

Pulp, papers, and books 

Sundries 



Total 4,951,878,575 



Consumption value. 



Duties de- 
creased. 



$4.33,099,846 
128,423,732 

1,221,956,620 
566,870,950 
300,965,953 



483,430,637 



7,947,568 

67,628,055 

1,719,428,069 



Duties in- 
creased. 



$11,105,820 



37,675,804 
31,280,372 



4,380,043 

462,001,856 

41,622,024 

804,445 



106,742,646 

81,486,466 

101,656,598 



878,756,074 



Of the above increases the following are luxuries, being 
articles strictly of voluntary use: 

Schedule A. Chemicals, including perfumeries, pomades and like articles $11,105,820 

Schedule H. Wines and liquors -.. „., 462,001,856 

Schedule L. Silks ...„„- , 106,742,646 



Total 



579,850,322 



This leaves a balance of increases which are not on articles 
of luxury of $298,905,752, as against decreases on about 
five billion dollars of consumption. 

Now, this statement shows as conclusively as possible the 
fact that there was a substantial downward revision on articles 
entering into the general consumption of the country which 
can be termed necessities, for the proportion is $5,000,000,000 
representing the consumption of articles to which decreases 
applied, to less than $300,000,000 of articles of necessity 
to which the increases applied. 

Now, the promise of the Republican platform was not 
to revise everything downward, and in the speeches which 



AND STATE PAPERS 217 

have been taken as interpreting that platform, which I made 
in the campaign, I did not promise that everything should 
go downward. What I promised was, that there should 
be many decreases, and that in some few things increases 
would be found to be necessary; but that on the whole I con- 
ceived that the change of conditions would make the revision 
necessarily downward — and that, I contend, under the 
showing which I have made, has been the result of the 
Payne bill. I did not agree, nor did the Republican party 
agree, that we would reduce rates to such a point as to reduce 
prices by the introduction of foreign competition. That 
is what the free traders desire. That is what the revenue- 
tariff reformers desire; but that is not what the Republican 
platform promised, and it is not what the Republican 
party wished to bring about. To repeat the statement 
with which I opened this speech, the proposition of the 
Republican party was to reduce rates so as to maintain a 
difference between the cost of production abroad and the 
cost of production here, insuring a reasonable profit to the 
manufacturer on all articles produced in this country; and 
the proposition to reduce rates and prevent their being 
excessive was to avoid the opportunity for monopoly and 
the suppression of competition, so that the excessive rates 
could be taken advantage of to force prices up. 

Now, it is said that there was not a reduction in a number 
of the schedules where there should have been. It is said 
that there was no reduction in the cotton schedule. There 
was not. The House and the Senate took evidence and 
found from cotton manufacturers and from other sources 
that the rates upon the lower class of cottons were such as 
to enable them to make a decent profit — but only a decent 
profit —and they were contented with it; but that the rates 
on the higher grades of cotton cloth, by reason of court 
decisions, had been reduced so that they were considerably 
below those of the cheaper grades of cotton cloth, and that 
by undervaluations and otherwise the whole cotton schedule 
had been made unjust and the various items were dispro- 



218 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

portionate in respect to the varying cloths. Hence, in the 
Senate a new system was introduced attempting to make the 
duties more specific rather than ad valorem, in order to 
prevent by judicial decision or otherwise a disproportionate 
and unequal operation of the schedule. Under this schedule 
it was contended that there had been a general rise of all 
the duties on cotton. This was vigorously denied by the 
experts of the Treasury Department. At last, the Senate 
in conference consented to a reduction amounting to about 
10 per cent, on all the lower grades of cotton, and this reduced 
the lower grades of cotton substantially to the same rates 
as before and increased the higher grades to what they ought 
to be under the Dingley law and what they were intended 
to be. Now, I am not going into the question of evidence 
as to whether the cotton duties were too high and whether 
the difference between the cost of production abroad and at 
home, allowing for a reasonable profit to the manufac- 
turer here, is less than the duties which are imposed under 
the Payne Bill. It was a question of evidence which Con- 
gress passed upon, after they heard the statements of cotton 
manufacturers and such other evidence as they could avail 
themselves of. I agree that the method of taking evidence 
and the determination was made in a general way, and that 
there ought to be other methods of obtaining evidence and 
reaching a conclusion more satisfactory. 

Criticism has also been made of the crockery schedule 
and the failure to reduce that. The question whether it 
ought to have been reduced or not was a question of evi- 
dence which both committees of Congress took up, and 
both concluded that the present rates on crockery were such 
as were needed to maintain the business in this country. 
I had been informed that the crockery schedule was not 
high enough, and mentioned that in one of my campaign 
speeches as a schedule probably where there ought to be 
some increases. It turned out that the difficulty was rather 
in undervaluations than in the character of the schedule 
itself, and so it was not changed. It is entirely possible 



AND STATE PAPERS 219 

to collect evidence to attack almost any of the schedules, 
hut one story is good until another is told, and I have heard 
no reason for sustaining the contention that the crockery 
schedule is unduly high. So with respect to n merous 
details — items of no great importance — in which, upon 
what they regarded as sufficient evidence, the committee 
advanced rates in order to save a business which was likely 
to be destroyed. 

I have never known a subject that will evoke so much 
contradictory evidence as the question of tariff rates and 
the question of cost of production at home and abroad. 
Take the subject of paper. A committee was appointed 
by Congress a year before the tariff sittings began, to deter- 
mine what the difference was between the cost of production 
in Canada of print paper and the cost of production here, 
and they reported that they thought that a good bill would 
be one imposing $2 a ton on paper, rather than $6, the 
Dinglev rate, provided that Canada could be induced to 
take off the export duties and remove the other obstacles 
to the importation of spruce wood in this country out of 
which wood pulp is made. An examination of the evidence 
satisfied Mr. Payne — I believe it satisfied some of the 
Republican dissenters — that $2, unless some change was 
made in the Canadian restrictions upon the exports of wood 
to this country, was much too low, and that $4 was only a 
fair measure of the difference between the cost of produc- 
tion here and in Canada. In other words, the $2 found by 
the special committee in the House was rather an invitation 
to Canada and the Canadian print-paper people to use 
their influence with their government to remove the wood 
restrictions by reducing the duly on- print paper against 
Canadian print-paper mills. It was rather a suggestion 
of a diplomatic nature than a positive statement of the dif- 
ference in actual cost of production under existing conditions 
between Canada and the United States. 

There are other subjects which I might take up. The 
tariff on hides was taken off because it was thought that it 



220 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

was not necessary in view of the high price of cattle thus to 
protect the man who raised them, and that the duty imposed 
was likely to throw the control of the sale of hides into the 
hands of meat packers in Chicago. In order to balance 
the reduction on hides, however, there was a great reduc- 
tion in shoes, from 25 to 10 per cent; on sole leather, from 
20 to 5 per cent.; on harness, from 45 to 20 per cent. So 
there was a reduction in the duty on coal of 33^ per cent. 
All countervailing duties were removed from oil, naphtha, 
gasoline, and its refined products. Lumber was reduced 
from $2 to $1.25; and these all on articles of prime necessity. 
It is said that there might have been more. But there were 
many business interests in the South, in Maine, along the 
border, and especially in the far Northwest, which insisted 
that it would give great advantage to Canadian lumber if 
the reduction were made more than 75 cents. Mr. Pinchot, 
the Chief Forester, thought that it would tend to make better 
lumber in this country if a duty were retained on it. The 
lumber interests thought that $2 was none too much, but the 
reduction w r as made and the compromise effected. Person- 
ally I was in favor of free lumber, because I did not think 
that if the tariff was taken off there would be much suffer- 
ing among the lumber interests. But in the controversy 
the House and the Senate took a middle course, and who 
can say they were not justified. 

With respect to the wool schedule, I agree that it is too 
high and that it ought to have been reduced, and that it 
probably represents considerably more than the difference 
between the cost of production abroad and the cost of pro- 
duction here. The difficulty about the woolen schedule is 
that there were two contending factions early in the history 
of Republican tariffs, to wit, woolgrowers and the woolen 
manufacturers, and that finally, many years ago, they 
settled on a basis by which wool in the grease should have 
11 cents a pound, and by which allowance should be made 
for the shrinkage of the washed wool in the differential upon 
woolen manufactures. The percentage of duty was very 



AND STATE PAPERS 221 

heavy — quite beyond the difference in the cost of produc- 
tion, which was not then regarded as a necessary or proper 
limitation upon protective duties. 

When it came to the question of reducing the duty at 
this hearing in this tariff hill on wool, Mr. Payne, in the 
House, and Mr. Aldrich, in the Senate, although both 
favored reduction in the schedule, found that in the Repub- 
lican party the interests of the wool growers of the Far West 
and the interests of the woolen manufacturers in the East and 
in other States, reflected through their representatives in Con- 
gress, were sufficiently strong to defeat any attempt to change 
the woolen tariff and that, had it been attempted, it would 
have beaten the bill reported from either committee. I am 
sorry this is so, and I could wish that it had been otherwise. 
It is the one important defect in the present Payne tariff bill 
and in the performance of the promise of the platform 
to reduce rates to a difference in the cost of production, 
with reasonable profit to the manufacturer. That it will 
increase the price of woolen cloth or clothes, I very much 
doubt. There have been increases by the natural increase 
in the price of wool the world over as an agricultural pro- 
duct, but this was not due to the tariff, because the tariff 
was not changed. The increase would therefore have taken 
place whether the tariff would have been changed or not. 
The cost of woolen cloths behind the tariff wall, through 
effect of competition, has been greatly less than the duty, 
if added to the price, would have made it. 

There is a complaint now by the woolen clothiers and by 
the carded-woolen people of this woolen schedule. They 
have honored me by asking in circulars sent out by them 
that certain questions be put to me in respect to it, and ask- 
ing why I did not veto the bill in view of the fact that the 
woolen schedule was not made in accord with the plat- 
form. I ought to say in respect to this point that all of them 
in previous tariff bills were strictly in favor of maintaining 
the woolen schedule as it was. The carded-woolen people 
are finding that carded wools are losing: their sales because 



on PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

they are going out of style. People prefer worsteds. The 
clothing people who are doing so much circularizing were 
contented to let the woolen schedule remain as it was until 
very late in the tariff discussion, long after the bill had 
passed the House, and, indeed, they did not grow very 
urgent until the bill had passed the Senate. This was 
because they found that the price of woolen cloth was going 
up, and so they desired to secure reduction in the tariff 
which would enable them to get cheaper material. They 
themselves are protected by a large duty, and I can not 
with deference to them ascribe their intense interest only 
to a deep sympathy with the ultimate consumers, so called. 
But, as I have already said, I am quite willing to admit 
that allowing the woolen schedule to remain where it is, 
is not a compliance with the terms of the platform as I 
interpret it and as it is generally understood. 

On the whole, however, I am bound to say that I think 
the Payne tariff bill is the best tariff bill that the Republi- 
can party ever passed; that in it the party has conceded the 
necessity for following the changed conditions and reducing 
tariff rates accordingly. This is a substantial achievement 
in the direction of lower tariffs and downward revision, 
and it ought to be accepted as such. Critics of the bill 
utterly ignore the very tremendous cuts that have been 
made in the iron schedule, which heretofore has been sub- 
ject to criticism in all tariff bills. From iron ore, which was 
cut 75 per cent., to all the other items as low as 20 per cent., 
with an average of something like 40 or 50 per cent., that 
schedule has been reduced so that the dano-er of increasing; 
prices through a monopoly of the business is very much 
lessened, and that was the chief purpose of revising the 
tariff downward under Republican protective principles. 
The severe critics of the bill pass this reduction in the metal 
schedule with a sneer, and say that the cut did not hurt the 
iron interests of the country. Well, of course it did not hurt 
them. It was not expected to hurt them. It was expected 
only to reduce excessive rates, so that business should still 



AND STATE PAPERS 223 

be conducted at a profit, and the very character of the criti- 
cism is an indication of the general injustice of the attitude 
of those who make it, in assuming that it was the promise 
of the Republican party to hurt the industries of the country 
by the reductions which they were to make in the tariff, 
whereas it expressly indicated as plainly as possible in the 
platform that all of the industries were to be protected 
against injury by foreign competition, and the promise only 
went to the reduction of excessive rates beyond what was 
necessary to protect them. 

The high cost of living, of which 50 per cent, is consumed 
in food, 25 per cent, in clothing, and 25 per cent, in rent 
and fuel, has not been produced by the tariff, because the 
tariff has remained the same while the increases have gone 
on. It is due to the change of conditions the world over. 
Living has increased everywhere in cost — in countries 
where there is free trade and in countries where there is 
protection — and that increase has been chiefly seen in 
the cost of food products. In other words we have had to 
pay more for the products of the farm, for meat, for grain, 
for everything that enters into food. Now, certainly no one 
will contend that protection has increased the cost of food 
in this country, when the fact is that we have been the 
greatest exporters of food products in the world. It is only 
that the demand has increased beyond the supply, that 
farm lands have not been opened as rapidly as the popula- 
tion and the demand has increased. I am not saying that 
the tariff does not increase prices in clothing and in build- 
ing and in other items that enter into the necessities of life, 
but what I wish to emphasize is that the recent increases 
in the cost of living in this country have not been due to 
the tariff. We have a much higher standard of living in 
this country than they have abroad and this has been made 
possible by higher income for the workingman, the farmer, 
and all classes. Higher wages have been made possible 
by the encouragement of diversified industries, built up and 
fostered by the tariff. 



224 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Now, the revision downward of the tariff that I have 
favored will not, I hope, destroy the industries of the 
country. Certainly it is not intended to. All that it is 
intended to do, and that is what I wish to repeat, is to put 
the tariff where it will protect industries here from foreign 
competition, but will not enable those who will wish to 
monopolize to raise prices by taking advantage of excessive 
rates beyond the normal difference in the cost of production. 

If the country desires free trade, and the country desires 
a revenue tariff and wishes the manufacturers all over the 
country to go out of business, and to have cheaper prices 
at the expense of the sacrifice of many of our manufacturing 
interests, then it ought to say so and ought to put the Demo- 
cratic party in power if it thinks that party can be trusted 
to carry out any affirmative policy in favor of a revenue 
tariff. Certainly in the discussions in the Senate there was 
no great manifestation on the part of our Democratic friends 
in favor of reducing rates on necessities. They voted to 
maintain the tariff rates on everything that came from their 
particular sections. If we are to have free trade, certainly 
it can not be had through the maintenance of Republican 
majorities in the Senate and House and a Republican 
administration. 

And now the question arises, what was the duty of a Mem- 
ber of Congress who believed in a downward revision greater 
than that which has been accomplished, who thought that 
the wool schedules ought to be reduced, and that perhaps 
there were other respects in which the bill could be improved ? 
Was it his duty because, in his judgment, it did not fully 
and completely comply with the promises of the party 
platform as he interpreted it, and indeed as I had interpreted 
it, to vote against the bill ? I am here to justify those who 
answer this question in the negative. Mr. Tawney was 
a downward revisionist like myself. He is a low-tariff man, 
and has been known to be such in Congress all the time 
he has been there. He is a prominent Republican, the head 
of the Appropriations Committee, and when a man votes 



AND STATE PAPERS 225 

as I think he ought to vote, and an opportunity such as this 
presents itself, I am glad to speak in behalf of what he did, 
not in defense of it, but in support of it. 

This is a government by a majority of the people. It 
is a representative government. People select some 400 
members to constitute the lower House and some 92 members 
to constitute the upper House through their legislatures, 
and the varying views of a majority of the voters in eighty 
or ninety millions of people are reduced to one resultant 
force to take affirmative steps in carrying on a government 
by a system of parties. Without parties popular govern- 
ment would be absolutely impossible. In a party those 
who join it, if they would make it effective, must surrender 
their personal predilections on matters comparatively of 
less importance in order to accomplish the good which 
united action on the most important principles at issue 
secures. 

Now, I am not here to criticize those Republican Mem- 
bers and Senators whose views on the subject of the tariff 
were so strong and intense that they believed it their duty 
to vote against their party on the tariff bill. It is a question 
for each man to settle for himself. The question is whether 
he shall help maintain the party solidarity for accomplish- 
ing its chief purposes, or whether the departure from prin- 
ciple in the bill as he regards it is so extreme that he must 
in conscience abandon the party. All I have to say is, in 
respect to Mr. Tawney's action, and in respect to my own 
in signing the bill, that I believed that the interests of the 
country, the interests of the party, required me to sacrifice 
the accomplishment of certain things in the revision of the 
tariff which I had hoped for, in order to maintain party 
solidarity, which I believe to be much more important than 
the reduction of rates in one or two schedules of the tariff. 
Had Mr. Tawnev voted against the bill, and had there been 
others of the House sufficient in number to have defeated 
the bill, or if I had vetoed the bill because of the absence 
of a reduction of rates in the wool schedule, when there was 



226 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

a general downward revision, and a substantial one though 
not a complete one, we should have left the party in a con- 
dition of demoralization that would have prevented the 
accomplishment of purposes and a fulfilment of other prom- 
ises which we had made just as solemnly as we had entered 
into that with respect to the tariff. When I could say without 
hesitation that this is the best tariff bill that the Republican 
party has ever passed, and therefore the best tariff bill that 
has been passed at all, I do not feel that I could have recon- 
ciled any other course to my conscience than that of signing 
the bill, and I think Mr. Tawney feels the same way. Of 
course if I had vetoed the bill I would have received the 
applause of many Republicans who may be called low- 
tariff Republicans, and who think deeply on that subject, 
and of all the Democracy. Our friends the Democrats 
would have applauded, and then laughed in their sleeve 
at the condition in which the party would have been left; 
but, more than this, and waiving considerations of party, 
where would the country have been had the bill been vetoed, 
or been lost by a vote? It would have left the question 
of the revision of the tariff open for further discussion during 
the next session. It would have suspended the settlement 
of all our business down to a known basis upon which 
prosperity could proceed and investments be made, and it 
would have held up the coming of prosperity to this country 
certainly for a year and probably longer. These are the 
reasons why Mr. Tawney voted for the bill. These are 
the reasons why I signed it. 

But there are additional reasons why the bill ought Hot 
to have been beaten. It contained provisions of the utmost 
importance in the interest of this country in dealing with 
foreign countries and in the supplying of a deficit which 
under the Dingley bill seemed inevitable. There has been 
a disposition in some foreign countries to take advantage of 
greater elasticity in their systems of imposing tariffs and 
to make regulations to exclude our products and exercise 
against us undue discrimination. Against these things we 



AND STATE PAPERS 227 

have been helpless, because it required an act of Congress to 
meet the difficulties. It is now proposed, by what is called 
the maximum and minimum clause, to enable the President 
to allow to come into operation a maximum or penalizing 
increase of duties over the normal or minimum duties when- 
ever in his opinion the conduct of the foreign countries 
has been unduly discriminatory against the United States. 
It is hoped that very little use may be required of this clause, 
but its presence in the law and the power conferred upon the 
Executive, it is thought, will prevent in the future such undue 
discriminations. Certainly this is most important to our 
exporters of agricultural products and manufactures. 

We have imposed an excise tax upon corporations meas- 
ured by 1 per cent, upon the net income of all corporations 
except fraternal and charitable corporations after exempt- 
ing $5,000. This, it is thought, will raise an income of 
26 to .'50 millions of dollars, will supply the deficit which 
otherwise might arise without it, and will bring under 
Federal supervision more or less all the corporations of the 
country. The inquisitorial provisions of the act are mild but 
effective, and certainly we may look not only for a revenue, 
but for some most interesting statistics and the means of 
obtaining supervision over corporate methods that has here- 
tofore not obtained. 

Then, we have finally done justice to the Philippines. 
We have introduced free trade between the Philippines and 
the United States, and we have limited the amount of sugar 
and the amount of tobacco and cigars that can be introduced 
from the Philippines to such a figure as shall greatly profit 
the Philippines and yet in no way disturb the products of 
the United States or interfere with those engaged in the 
tobacco or sugar interests here. These features of the bill 
were most important, and the question was whether they 
were to be sacrificed because the bill did not in respect to 
woo! and woolens and in some few other matters meet our 
expectations. I do not hesitate to repeat that I think it 
would have been an unwise sacrifice of the business interests 



228 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of the country, it would have been an unwise sacrifice of 
the solidarity, efficiency, and promise-performing power 
of the party, to have projected into the next session another 
long discussion of the tariff, and to have delayed or probably 
defeated the legislation needed in the improvement of our 
interstate commerce regulations, and in making more effi- 
cient our anti-trust law and the prosecutions under it. Such 
legislation is needed to clinch the Roosevelt policies, by which 
corporations and those in control of them shall be limited 
to a lawful path and shall be prevented from returning to 
those abuses which a recurrence of prosperity is too apt 
to bring about unless definite, positive steps of a legisla- 
tive character are taken to mark the lines of honest and 
lawful corporate management. 

Now, there is another provision in the new tariff bill that 
I regard as of the utmost importance. It is a provision which 
appropriates $75,000 for the President to employ persons to 
assist him in the execution of the maximum and minimum 
tariff clause and in the administration of the tariff law. 
Under that authority I conceive that the President has the 
right to appoint a board, as I have appointed it, who shall 
associate with themselves, and have under their control, a 
number of experts who shall address themselves, first, to the 
operation of foreign tariffs upon the exports of the United 
States, and then to the operation of the United States tariff 
upon imports and exports. There are provisions in the general 
tariff procedure for the ascertainment of the cost of produc- 
tion of articles abroad and the cost of production of articles 
here. I intend to direct the board, in the course of these 
duties and in carrying them out, in order to assist me in the 
administration of the law, to make what might be called a 
glossary of the tariff, or a small encyclopedia of the tariff, 
or something to be compared to the United States Pharma- 
copoeia with reference to information as to drugs and medi- 
cines. I conceive that such a board may very properly, 
in the course of their duties, take up separately all the items 
of the tariff, both those on the free list and those which are 



AND STATE PAPERS 229 

dutiable, describe what they are, where they are manu- 
factured, what their uses are, the methods of manufacture, 
the quality of the manufacture, the cost of production 
abroad and here, and every other fact with respect to each 
item which would enable the Executive to understand the 
operation of the tariff, the value of the article, and the 
amount of duty imposed, and all those details which the 
student of every tariff law finds it so difficult to discover. 
I do not intend, unless compelled or directed by Congress, 
to publish the result of these investigations, but to treat 
them merely as incidental facts brought out officially from 
time to time, and as they may be ascertained and put on 
record in the Department, there to be used when they have 
all been accumulated and are sufficiently complete to justify 
executive recommendation based on them. Now I think 
it is utterly useless, as I think it would be greatly distressing 
to business, to talk of another revision of the tariff during 
the present Congress. I should think that it would cer- 
tainly take the rest of this administration to accumulate 
the data upon which a new and proper revision of the tariff 
might be had. By that time the whole Republican party 
can express itself again in respect to the matter and bring 
to bear upon its Representatives in Congress that sort of 
public opinion which shall result in solid party action. I 
am glad to see that a number of those who thought it their 
duty to vote against the bill insist that they are still Repub- 
licans and intend to carry on their battle in favor of lower 
duties and a lower revision within the lines of the party. 
That is their right and, in their view of things, is their duty. 
It is vastly better that they should seek action of the party 
than that they should break off from it and seek to organize 
another party, which would probably not result in accom- 
plishing anything more than merely defeating our party 
and inviting in the opposing party, which does not believe, 
or says that it does not believe, in protection. I think that 
we ought to give the present bill a chance. After it has 
been operating for two or three years, we can tell much more 



230 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

accurately than we can to-day its effect upon the industries 
of the country and the necessity for any amendment in its 
provisions. 

I have tried to state as strongly as I can, but not more 
strongly than I think the facts justify, the importance of 
not disturbing the business interests of this country by an 
attempt in this Congress or the next to make a new revision; 
but in the meantime I intend, so far as in me lies, to secure 
official data upon the operation of the tariff, from which, 
when a new revision is attempted, exact facts can be secured. 

I have appointed a tariff board that has no brief for either 
side in respect to what the rates shall be. I hope they will 
make their observations and note their data in their record 
with exactly the same impartiality and freedom from anxiety 
as to result with which the Weather Bureau records the 
action of the elements or any scientific bureau of the Gov- 
ernment records the results of its impartial investigations. 
Certainly the experience in this tariff justifies the statement 
that no revision should hereafter be attempted in which 
more satisfactory evidence of an impartial character is not 
secured. 

I am sorry that I am not able to go further into detail 
with respect to the tariff bill, but I have neither the informa- 
tion nor the time in which to do it. I have simply stated 
the case as it seemed to Mr. Tawney in his vote and as it 
seemed to me in my signing the bill. 



XXV 

ADDRESS AT DES MOINES, IOWA 

(SEPTEMBER 20, 1909) 

Fellow Citizens of Iowa: 

I HAVE great pleasure in meeting such a concourse of 
citizens of one of the most purely agricultural States 
in the union — one which has enjoyed to the full the prosper- 
ity which has come to the man who has invested his money 
and his labor in the farm for the last decade. 

Iowa has come to be a State in which there is great 
independence of view, and in which the voters exercise 
intelligent discrimination with reference to candidates and 
policies that keeps those who are looking for political vic- 
tories in a constant state of doubt and anxiety. 

The last general election was held in November of 1908, 
and resulted in the success of the Republican party in the 
national contest. In both chambers of Congress the Repub- 
licans have a majority and they have the President. Looking 
forward to the legislation that ought to be expected from 
that party, we must refer back to the platform upon which 
the party was elected. In the extra session recently closed 
a tariff bill was passed as was promised in the platform. 
I do not intend to dwell upon the much-disputed question 
whether that bill complied with the bill promised, for I have 
considered that at another time and at another place. What 
I wish to invite your attention to this morning is, with the 
tariff bill out of the way for the time at least, what there is 
for the Republican party in Congress under the promises 
of its platform to do in the coming regular session. 

Now, in the first place one of the great issues in the last 
campaign — one in which I took a deep personal interest 

231 



232 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

because the issue concerned nie personally — was the claim 
that the Republican party was opposed to labor organiza- 
tions, and had favored the use of the injunction in labor 
disputes in behalf of the employer, and, therefore, that its 
candidate should be opposed by all of organized labor 
and of all other kinds of labor on this account. As you 
perhaps remember, I had decided a number of the important 
labor cases in which permanent injunctions were issued, 
and I was characterized as the "father of labor injunc- 
tions." It became necessary for me to go about the 
country explaining and defending my labor decisions and 
showing, as I was able to show, that my attitude, while it 
was in favor of certain punishment of disturbance of the 
peace and other violations of the law in connection with 
labor disputes, was that of one favorable to the organ- 
ization of labor as necessary to enable it to stand upon an 
equality of resources with capital in the necessary contro- 
versies that arise between labor and capital with respect 
to the fixing of their compensation and arranging the other 
terms of employment. I discussed this subject at Chicago 
the other night at length. I do not intend to discuss it here 
other than to say that I have not forgotten the promise of 
the platform, and Congress should take up the question 
of injunctions and labor disputes and should adopt a law 
embodying the procedure as to issuing of injunctions without 
notice and framing it in such a way as to prevent such injunc- 
tions save in rare and meritorious cases. 

More than this, I am prepared to recommend that Con- 
gress require the interstate railroads to adopt any other 
safety device that can be proved as valuable in order to 
protect the lives and limbs of men engaged in that dangerous 
employment. While I believe that every man ought to be 
permitted to work for whom and at what wage he pleases — 
and I am prepared to go to the extreme limit in defending 
this right — I am nevertheless one of those who approve 
the organization of labor and, if I were [a workingman, 
would probably become a member of a trades union if I 



AND STATE PAPERS 233 

could gain admission. My attitude on this point is based 
upon the belief that the organization of labor has secured 
better terms of employment, higher wages, a safer place 
to work in, and other advantages which but for the organi- 
zation and its demands in a form that could not be denied 
might have been long delayed in coming. The leading men 
of the labor organizations of this country, many of whom 
opposed my last election, are greatly to be commended 
because of the stand that they have taken against the 
prevalence of socialism in labor unions. They favor the 
preservation and maintenance of our institutions under 
the Constitution, which recognizes the right of property as 
well as the liberty of the individual; and they are entitled 
to our sympathy in this struggle, which by reason of the 
socialistic and anarchistic tendencies of European labor 
organizations, they have much difficulty in maintaining. 

But legislation with respect to the laborer is not all the 
legislation that the Republican party is pledged to. Indeed, 
when I look forward to the next session and realize how much 
there is to be considered, I tremble lest the session will not 
be long enough, and lest it will not be possible to do all that 
has been promised. 

Immediately after Mr. Roosevelt's election in 1904, he 
wrote a message to Congress in which he recommended to 
Congress that the interstate commerce law be amended so 
that the Interstate Commerce Commission, finding a rate 
to be unreasonable and unduly discriminatory, might change 
the rate and fix one which should be fair. In other words, 
his recommendation embodied the fixing of the rates by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission The suggestion of the 
message was followed by the introduction of a bill in the 
House which in the first regular session of the newly elected 
Congress was passed by the House as the Hepburn Rate 
Bill. It went to the Senate and received a good many amend- 
ments, and then after a long and acrimonious fight it was 
passed almost unanimously. The chief feature of the bill 
was the new authoritv of the Commission after determining 



234 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that an existing rate complained of was unreasonable, to 
say what would be a reasonable rate; in other words, to fix 
the rate if the rate complained of was unjust. There were 
many other features to the rate bill, but the one I have given 
is perhaps the most important. A provision was made for 
appeal from the action of the Commission to the court, 
and this was wisely done for, even if no provision was made, 
the court would still have jurisdiction to consider whether 
the rate fixed was confiscatory or not. If the act had 
attempted to prevent such an appeal to the court, it probably 
would have rendered it invalid under the Constitution. 
The rate bill has now been in operation some three years 
and it must be admitted that it has not furnished the relief 
against unduly discriminatory rates with the expedition 
and effectiveness which were expected. The Republican 
platform promised additional legislation in aid of enforcing 
the interstate commerce law, and I have been engaged in 
the consideration of what I ought to recommend to Congress 
in order to comply with that promise. Those who opposed 
the provision by which appeal from the order of the Com- 
mission might be taken to the court did so because they 
thought such a right to appeal would offer much opportunity 
to delay the proceedings. An examination of the decisions 
of the Commission and the resort to the courts by the way of 
temporary injunctions, fully justifies the conclusion that one 
of the defects of the present interstate commerce law is the 
delay entailed by litigation in the court over the correctness 
of the order of the Commission. The court appeal can not 
be abolished because it is a constitutional right. Something 
must be done to reduce its effect by way of delay, so that 
the decision of the court shall be prompt, final and effective. 
It is proposed now by a number of gentlemen of my Cabinet, 
who have conferred with some members of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission, to facilitate these appeals from 
the Commission by the creation of a separate interstate 
commerce court of five members which shall sit in Washing- 
ton and which shall be the only court to which petitions 



AND STATE PAPERS 235 

to set aside or nullify the orders of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission can be made; and it is proposed to allow a 
single judge to make an order staying the proceedings of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission but sixty days, and 
thereafter that no injunction shall be allowed against the 
order of the Commission unless granted by the whole court 
of five members. I know that objection will be made to 
the creation of this court. In one of the bills originally 
introduced such a separate court was provided for, but the 
provision was defeated. A tariff court has been provided 
in the new tariff bill to consist of five members whose judg- 
ment shall be final on all questions arising under the admin- 
istration of the tariff. I am strongly inclined to think that 
a similar court, except that an appeal ought to lie from it 
to the Supreme Court, will serve the purpose of expedition 
and the dispatch of business in respect to the orders of the 
Commission. I know that there is a well-grounded objec- 
tion to increasing Federal courts and to the provision for the 
appointment of Federal judges, whose terms and salaries 
last for life and who become a permanent expenditure of 
the Government. But there is this to be said, that if the 
establishment of such a court proves to be a mistake, the 
demand for judges throughout the country and their increase 
will furnish an opportunity to use the judges thus appointed 
for other and general judicial work. The uniformity of 
decisions, and the promptness of decision, which may be 
expected from a court whose experience will soon make 
them experts in the disposition of such cases, would promise 
to the shipper and railroad litigants quick decision as to 
their rights. 

A second change in the interstate commerce law ought to 
give to the Commission the power to hear and entertain 
complaints against unjust classification of merchandise for 
transportation. The classification of merchandise is just 
as important in determining the expense of transportation 
as the fixing of the rates, because rates are fixed according 
to classes, and if an article is classed in one class this deter- 



23G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

mines the rate at which that article is to be carried. The 
classification should be as near as possible so that each class 
includes within it all the various merchandise that can 
reasonably be carried by the railroad at the same cost and 
rate. It is perfectly clear that by including articles in the 
same class which ought to pay different rates, a railroad 
can commit exactly the same kind of injustice as it would 
by imposing an exorbitant rate as to any class. Hence, 
I haven't the slightest hesitation in recommending to Con- 
gress that the power of the Commission should be extended 
to include not only the fixing of rates after complaint, but 
also the readjustment of classification if it proves on 
investigating to be unjust. 

The Interstate Commerce Commission has found great 
embarrassment in the proper administration of the law in 
the fact that it is limited in its action to investigating only 
those rates which are specifically complained of by a shipper 
or some other interested person. It has frequently found 
that in the examination of one rate complained of and the dis- 
covery that it is unjust, there are many other rates connected 
with this rate equally unjust that if it had the power of 
initiating complaints of itself it could promptly reach and 
readjust and fix to the benefit of persons who have not seen 
fit or have not had the courage or money to contest the fair- 
ness and correctness of the rates. I am aware that the ques- 
tion was hotly discussed in Congress at the time of the 
passage of the rate bill, and it was thought wise to limit 
the power of the Commission to the consideration of rates 
actually complained of by persons interested. It would 
now seem from the experience of the Commission that it 
is the extension of its power so as to institute complaints 
of its own that is necessary to make its work truly effective. 
This is the proper method of legislation — to pass the bill 
and if it does not operate as fully in the direction intended 
as we had hoped, then amend the bill so as to improve it in 
that direction. I do not think that until we try this new 
amendment and see how it works, we ought to put down 



AND STATE PAPERS 237 

the bars entirely and give to the Interstate Commerce 
Commission the absolute power to fix rates in advance and 
on their own initiative, and without complaint filed and 
investigation made as is done in some of the States. I think 
it a great deal better to proceed cautiously in this matter 
and feel our way to a satisfactory act which shall accom- 
plish the purpose without too drastic or radical action. 

Under the interstate commerce law, a new rate or classi- 
fication is to be filed with the Commission. It is proposed 
now to authorize the Commission to postpone the date 
that such new rate or classification is to take effect, provided 
that within thirty days of the date of the order a complaint 
be filed that such rate or classification is unreasonable or 
unjust, or, provided, second, that the commission itself 
shall institute an inquiry into the reasonableness or justice 
of such rate or classification. This introduces a somewhat 
new element into the act by placing the railroad company 
in the situation when it proposes to make a change in the 
rate, that it should be prepared to show to the Commission 
affirmatively that the change to the new rate is justified. 
I am inclined to think that this is a fair change in the pro- 
visions of the law. It gives to the public the same right to 
have changes which affect them injuriously, investigated 
before they go into effect as it does changes of rates by the 
railroad, by appeal to the courts to have the order of the 
Commission subjected to investigation and hearing. Rail- 
roads ought not to be permitted to change rates unless they 
can give reason for it. 

A third amendment to the act should provide that the 
Commission may by order suspend, modify or annul any 
changes in the rules or regulations which impose undue 
burdens on shippers. No doubt ought to be left with respect 
to the power of the Commission on such a subject, because 
the rules and regulations of a railway are the means by 
which injustice may be done to the shipper. There has 
been a good deal of difficulty encountered by shippers over 
connecting lines, and the power of the Commission in respect 



238 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to this lias been quite limited. It would seem well to 
empower the Commission on the application of one carrier, 
or an individual, or at the instance of the Commission itself, 
to compel connecting carriers to unite in forming a through 
route and fix the rate and the apportionment thereof among 
the carriers. The Commission should also be empowered 
to prescribe the rules and regulations under which the ship- 
pers shall have the privilege to designate the route over which 
their shipments shall be carried to the destination beyond 
that of the first carrier. 

Another most important amendment of the interstate 
commerce law — part of which was specifically promised 
in the platform — is a prohibition against any interstate 
railroad company acquiring stock in any competing rail- 
road in the future, and a further provision that no railroad 
engaged in interstate commerce shall after a certain date 
hold stock in a competing railroad; and the further amend- 
ment that after the passage of the amending act, no rail- 
road company engaged in interstate commerce shall issue 
any additional stock or bonds or other obligations except 
with the approval of the Commission, based upon a finding 
by the Commission that the same are issued, first, for pur- 
poses authorized by law, and, second, for a price not less 
than par for stock, and not less than the reasonable mar- 
ket value for bonds, such price being paid either in cash 
or in property or services, and if in property or services, 
then at the fair value thereof as determined by the Commis- 
sion. 

By these provisions enforced with reason, and drawn with 
a view not to be too drastic with railroads in the beginning, 
we shall gradually abolish that evil which is involved in the 
union of competing roads by one road's owning the stock 
of another; and we shall prevent the over-issue of stock 
and bonds so as to prevent watering, and to keep the rail- 
road efficient for the service for which it was intended. It 
greatly interferes after a time with the power of the owners 
to improve a railroad if it is loaded down with securities, 



AND STATE PAPERS 239 

the interest upon which it cannot pay because those secur- 
ities were not represented by actual value put into the 
railroad; and I think it, therefore, plainly within the power 
of Congress in dealing with interstate railroad companies 
that are organized under state corporations to insist that 
in order to maintain efficient instruments of transportation 
the watering of stock and bonds on them shall cease. 

These suo-o-ested amendments to the interstate commerce 
law will entrust to the Interstate Commerce Commission 
considerably more power than that tribunal has at present. 
But we have entered upon a course of regulating railroads, 
and as the laws which we passed have not been as effective 
for the purposes as it was hoped, we must continue to 
introduce amendments to bring about a law which wall 
serve the purpose which we have. 

You in Iowa have been perhaps more successful than 
elsewhere in the country in regulating your railroads. The 
difficulties of the interstate commerce regulation are, however, 
very much greater than those in a State, and present much 
more difficult questions; but as we are now entering upon a 
period of the greatest prosperity, in which the railroads are 
sure to share, it seems wise to remedy as promptly as we 
can the defects in the present regulation in order that we shall 
not under the influence of prosperity forget to insist that 
we are not to return to former abuses. 

One great trouble with railroad management was the 
allowance by railroads of illegal and discriminatory rebates. 
Those have now largely ceased, and that was one of the 
great accomplishments of Mr. Roosevelt's administration. 
But the question of rates and their justice still remains. 
The scope of the authority of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission has not been wide enough to make the regu- 
lation as effective as it ought to be, and to bring under con- 
sideration as many of the rates as it should within a reason- 
able time. 

In addition to these amendments to the law which are 
looking to a rather more drastic regulation of railroad rates 



240 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

than heretofore, another provision should be added by which 
railroads may be permitted to agree upon traffic rates, and 
make contracts with respect to rates that shall not be pooling 
contracts, but shall constitute agreements as to rates — pro- 
vided always that such agreements shall receive the approval 
of the Interstate Commerce Commission. In this wise 
the operation of the anti-trust law against traffic agree- 
ments between railroads will be abolished; and against 
their absolute prohibition would be substituted a require- 
ment that such agreements shall meet the approval of a 
properly constituted tribunal. 

This last section brings me to the question of the anti- 
trust law. While we have not threshed the whole matter 
out so as to reach a definite conclusion, I am strongly inclined 
to the view that the way to make the anti-trust law more 
effective is to narrow its scope somewhat, so that it shall 
not include in its prohibition and denunciation as a crime 
anything but a conspiracy or combination or contract 
entered into with actual intent to monopolize or suppress 
competition in interstate trade. At the common law all 
contracts in restraint of trade, except those which were 
called reasonable, the courts would decline to enforce and 
leave the parties in the condition in which they were found. 
The anti-trust law denounces such contracts when in restraint 
of interstate trade as criminal — and that whether made 
with intent to monopolize or to suppress competition or with- 
out intent to do either. The theory seemed to be that a 
contract in restraint of interstate trade tended to a monop- 
oly, and therefore should be denounced because of its 
tendency, whether there was any actual purpose on the 
pari of the person making it to monopolize or suppress com- 
petition or not. This feature of the present anti-trust law 
has, it seems to me, weakened its force because it has seemed 
to bring within the condemnation of the law contracts and 
other arrangements which were actually innocent in their 
character, and which were not included in those vicious 
combinations which it was the real intent of the law to sup- 



AND STATE PAPERS 241 

press. This wider scope of the law, which I would narrow, 
has been seized upon by those who do not favor the law 
at all as a ground for ridiculing its provisions and as a 
means of demonstrating its absurdity. If the crimes 
denounced in the law were confined to combinations, con- 
spiracies and contracts made with intent to monopolize 
or partially monopolize interstate trade, or to suppress com- 
petition in interstate trade, then the real object of the law 
would come within its denunciation, and no one could 
declare its operation to be unreasonable in that it included 
a lot of innocent contracts or arrangements. 

It has been suggested that the law ought to limit its \ 
denunciation to those contracts in restraint of trade that 
are unreasonable. I do not favor any such limitation/ 
for the reason that in the common law the reasonable 
restraint of trade came to have a very different meaning. 
It was a narrow one, and one which would have but excep- 
tional application. A reasonable restraint of trade was one 
made ordinarily in the sale of the good will of a business 
in which the vendor agreed not to go into business within 
the territory covered by the business, the good will of which 
he was selling, and this was to enable him to sell what he 
had acquired and to enable the buyer to maintain in its 
integrity the good will which he had bought; but if the 
restraint went beyond the territory covered by the business, 
it was regarded as an unreasonable restraint of trade and 
was unenforcible. But the proposal of introducing the word 
"reasonable" into the act goes much farther than this excep- 
tional case in the common law. It seems to be proposed 
to leave to the judges to decide what combinations and 
contracts in restraint of trade ought to be permitted to exist 
and to be enforced on general grounds of public policy — 
in other words, to have the court attempt to establish some 
line between what are called good and bad trusts, as if the 
suppression of competition in some cases was a good thing 
and in other cases was bad. I can not agree that any such 
distinction can properly be made. All combinations to 



242 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

suppress competition, or to maintain a monopoly in whole 
or in part, of interstate trade, is and should be in violation 
of the anti-trust law and should be punished as such; and 
there is no room for the expression "reasonable" or "unrea- 
sonable" in this general view of the statute. If the statute 
were limited to combinations, conspiracies and contracts 
to restrain trade with the intent to monopolize interstate 
trade, or with intent to suppress competition therein, it 
would probably not include within its denunciation a boy- 
cott against goods going into interstate trade, because such 
a boycott is a restraint against interstate trade with the 
intention to restrain it, but it is not a restraint of interstate 
trade with intent either to suppress competition or to main- 
tain a monopoly of the goods with respect to which the con- 
tract is made. I am entirely opposed to excepting from the 
operation of any law of general application a class of persons 
like laborers or workingmen or farmers or ministers or 
teachers or lawyers. Take the present anti-trust law, there- 
fore, and insert a special exception to the application of that 
law by providing that it should not apply to the trades unions 
class and it would be legislation of the most vicious character; 
but when you make the law apply only to conspiracies seek- 
ing to suppress competition or to monopolize the trade, 
then the labor boycott is probably not included, simply 
because the statute would not seem wide enough to include 
it in its scope, and this result is obtained without class 
legislation at all. 

I am in favor of this change because I believe that the 
ordinary action in equity by injunction in any place where 
the boycott is operative can accomplish effectively all the 
purposes that ought to be accomplished in the suppression 
of such an evil. On the other hand, to employ the anti- 
trust law for the purpose of suppressing evils growing out 
of the labor organizations is to take advantage against such 
unlawful labor organizations of the literal terms of statute 
which were probably not intended to include that which judi- 
cial construction could not avoid including within its words. 



AND STATE PAPERS 243 

It would probably seem wise to establish an accusatory 
bureau in the Department of Justice to institute prosecutions 
for violations of the interstate commerce law and of the 
anti-trust law, while it will be wise to continue the Bureau 
of Corporations, enlarging its scope somewhat perhaps to 
maintain the registration of corporations and the investi- 
gation into their operation so far as interstate trade is con- 
cerned. 

It has been found most difficult to separate the admin- 
istrative from the quasi-judicial functions of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission, but it is thought that it would be 
wise to take away from them any responsibility in regard to 
the investigation of the validity of their orders before the 
Interstate Commerce Commission court and to leave the 
maintenance of those orders to the Department of Justice 
when the appeal comes on to be heard in the court. 

The two statutes which must claim the attention of our 
Congress in its next session are the interstate commerce 
law and the anti-trust law, and I have outlined in a tenta- 
tive way what I am inclined to recommend to Congress as 
proper amendments. I do so for the purpose of promoting 
public discussion of them in order that when Congress shall 
meet the subjects shall not be entirely new and arguments 
fro and con shall not be lacking. I believe it will facili- 
tate consideration of matters in Congress itself. 

Another series of questions for Congress is with refer- 
ence to the conservation of resources. These I shall not dis- 
cuss now, but shall do so later in my journey. As I look 
forward to the coming session of Congress, it seems to me 
that the work to be done will involve close attention and 
much discussion, which I hope will be temperate, entered 
into with a view of reaching a clear and satisfactory conclu- 
sion. 

The monetary commission will probably report so that 
its final conclusion may be considered at the end of the 
coming session or at the beginning of the next. In any 
event, as we look forward to the work which this Congress 



2U PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

has to do. we must be conscious that the measures I have 
proposed will consume all the time there is. 

All this is in the line of performing the promises of the 
Republican platform, and we can certainly be discharging 
no higher or more sacred duty- If by the legislation we shall 
have defined with exactness the proper course for railroads 
to pursue and also the proper course for great industrial 
corporations to pursue and make clear the path of law- 
fulness, we shall have vindicated the good sense of the 
people in placing the Republican party in power. 



XXVI 
ADDRESS AT AUDITORIUM, DENVER, COLORADO 

(SEPTEMBER 21, 1909) 

Fellow Citizens of Colorado: 

IT GIVES me great pleasure again to visit the Cen- 
tennial State, and to find here, as elsewhere, the 
signs of a coming period of prosperity which promises to be 
exceptional in the history of the country. 

I have undertaken a trip of 13,000 miles, with a view 
to getting a somewhat more accurate and reliable impres- 
sion of the needs of the country, and with the view to coming 
into personal touch with the people of the country, and 
especially in those States so far distant from the seat of 
government that their people are apt to suppose that their 
interests are forgotten in the conduct of the Government. 
It certainly serves to bring the Chief Magistrate into closer 
union with the eighty millions of people of this country, 
for he can at reasonably short intervals come into contact 
with those to whom he is responsible for the proper discharge 
of his duties during the temporary delegation of power 
with which they have honored him. The great difficulty 
and burden of such a trip upon the one making it is the 
indispensable accompaniment of speeches along the way. 
It may also be hard on the people to have to hear the 
speeches, but in a country where the people rule, discussion 
is necessary, and if the Chief Executive in going about among 
the people does not discuss something, he will seem to be 
in the position of wishing to avoid consideration of the 
interests of the public, or to be afraid of bringing to their 
attention and rendering account to them of what the Gov- 
ernment has done or intends to do. For that reason I have 

245 



240 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

attempted on this trip, at various centers of population of 
importance, to take up some topic of immediate interest, 
and explain my views upon it, and if it is a matter already 
acted upon, to show the wisdom of the action if I can, or 
if it is to be acted upon, outline what I deem to be the proper 
course to be taken. In the pursuit of this plan I have 
selected to-night for consideration and discussion the cor- 
poration, tax which was embodied in the tariff bill recently 
passed, and the income tax proposition which at the same 
session of Congress, and really as a part of the tariff bill, 
though formally included in a joint resolution, was submitted 
to the States to amend the Constitution of the United States 
by giving to the Congress power to levy an income tax 
generally, without regard to the apportionment of the tax 
among the States according to population. 

The necessity for the revision of the tariff arose not only 
because the rates in a number of the schedules had become 
excessive and were quite beyond the measure of the tariff 
set by the Republican platform, to wit, the difference between 
the cost of production of the article at home and that abroad, 
together with a reasonable allowance for profit to the Ameri- 
(.111 manufacturer, but also because within the last year 
or two the tariff had ceased to produce enough revenue in 
connection with the internal revenue law, to pay the expenses 
of the government. 

There are two ways of meeting the difficulty which arises 
when your expenditures exceed your receipts; one is to 
reduce your expenditures, and the other is to increase your 
receipts. It is the proposal of the Administration and the 
Government to take both courses in this regard, and I have 
no doubt that the appropriations for that coming year will 
show a very considerable reduction in expenditures, per- 
haps reaching $40,000,000 or $50,000,000. But even this 
is not enough to make up for the probable deficit under the 
old tariff law, or under the tariff law as it has passed, unless 
accompanied by some additional method of taxation. 

It was first proposed, and I recommended it in my Inaugu- 



AND STATE PAPERS 247 

ral Address, that the central government impose a tax upon 
inheritances — a graduated inheritance tax; that is, a tax, 
the percentage of which increased as the inheritance was 
greater, in a certain proportion; but this was seriously 
objected to by many of the States, some of whose legisla- 
tures passed protests against it, on the ground that that was 
a field of taxation which the States had preempted, and in 
respect to which it would be rather unfair to impose a double 
burden. I have no disposition to quarrel with that conclu- 
sion, although I think a good deal might have been said in 
favor of the Federal inheritance tax because the truth is 
that even although the State and Federal Governments 
imposed the inheritance tax at the rate proposed, it would 
not have been particularly heavy. Still with the inheri- 
tance tax foreclosed, the question then arose as to what tax 
should be imposed in order to make up the deficit. This 
question arose in the Senate, for the inheritance tax had 
passed the House, and had been stricken out by the Finance 
Committee of the Senate. A part of the Republicans and 
all of the Democrats of the Senate united in pressing for 
consideration a general income tax on individuals throughout 
the United States. It left an exemption of those whose 
income did not exceed $5,000, but upon the rest it imposed 
a general income tax of 2 per cent. It also imposed a tax 
under the former income tax upon inheritances, and it was 
as inquisitorial as possible in subjecting the business of 
every individual in the community to investigation, and 
permitted the examination of his books and all private 
evidences of what his business consisted of, and what his 
income was; this investigation to be carried on by the 
collectors and deputy collectors of internal revenue. The 
law was as near as it could be made that income tax 
law which had once been considered by the Supreme Court 
some ten years ago, and which was held to be unconsti- 
tutional by a vote of five to four. It was conceded that the 
tax would probably raise $150,000,000 to $200,000,000, 
which was far in excess of the needs of the Government 



248 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

if the tariff bill was to retain its general form, as proposed, 
and so to produce revenues which should be reasonably 
expected from it. Our friends the Democrats favored 
the income tax with a view to substituting it for the tariff 
as an income-producing measure, thus minimizing the office 
of the tariff in protecting the industries of this country. 
In other words, the passage of the income tax bill would 
have lent support probably to the proposition to have a 
tariff for revenue only, and would have interfered with the 
protective policy to which the Republican party is pledged. 
One further objection to the income tax amendment 
was that it had been declared to be unconstitutional by 
the Supreme Court, and to invoke a second decision upon 
that issue was to question the uniformity of the decisions 
of the Supreme Court and to drag the Court into a politi- 
cal discussion which, whatever its decision, could not make 
for its standing as an impartial tribunal before the people. 
It indicated a diversity of view between the Congress and 
the Court — two coordinate branches — with reference to 
the constitutionality of the law which it seemed unwise to 
perpetuate in a formal statute. But the income tax amend- 
ment seemed quite likely to pass by the vote of all the 
Democrats and a sufficient number of Republicans. There- 
fore those who were opposed to the income tax amendment 
looked about to see if a compromise could not be proposed 
less objectionable than the income tax amendment, which 
would satisfy enough Republicans who were advised to 
favor the income tax amendment to prevent the passage 
of that amendment, and such a compromise was found in 
a proposal to pass the present corporation tax, and also the 
joint resolution already referred to, proposing to. the States 
an amendment authorizing the General Government to 
impose an income tax without apportioning it as a direct 
tax according to the population of the States. When Con- 
gress assembled, the Ways and Means Committee of the 
House had adopted a bill in which they made up the proper 
deficit by an inheritance tax and also by a tax upon tea and 



AND STATE PAPERS 049 

coffee. There were serious objections to the tax on tea 
and coffee on the ground that it increased the expenses of 
living, especially among those least able to bear such expense, 
and therefore the Ways and Means Committee was induced 
to omit the coffee and tea tax. And then the question arose, 
what should be substituted for that tax in the bill ? 

In my Letter of Acceptance of the Republican nomina- 
tion for the Presidency, I said I thought that an income tax 
could be devised which could conform to the Constitution 
of the United States, and therefore that the income tax 
amendment was not necessary, and when this situation 
arose which I have described, I directed the Attorney- 
General to prepare a law which should impose what in 
effect would be an income tax and still conform to the 
Constitution. The Attorney-General did so, and I recom- 
mended the imposition of that tax to the Committee on 
Ways and Means. After some deliberation, the committee 
concluded that even without the coffee and tea tax the income 
produced would be sufficient, by means of the inheritance 
tax, to make an additional form of taxation unnecessary. 
So the matter went to the Senate, where the situation became 
changed, as I have described it, and the question arose 
whether we could find some substitute for a general income 
tax that would satisfy the majority of that body and prevent 
the passage of a general income tax held by the Supreme 
Court to be unconstitutional. Accordingly a compromise 
was reached by -which the present corporation tax was 
passed, and the amendment to the Constitution proposed. 

For the sake of clearness, I may say that the Constitution 
does not forbid the levying of an income tax by the Central 
Government. The section of the Constitution involved in 
general terms forbids the levy of a direct tax by the Cen- 
tral Government unless such direct tax is apportioned among 
(Hie States according to their population. The Supreme 
^Court, in the last decision referred to, held that the income 
tax was a direct tax, and if levied at all by the Central Gov- 
ernment must be apportioned according to the population 



250 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of the States. This made the imposition of such a tax utterly 
impracticable, and so construed in effect forbade a general 
income tax at all. But there are decisions of the Supreme 
Court authorizing an excise tax to be levied on business 
corporations and to be measured by the gross income or 
the net income of the business; and therefore it seemed to 
the Attorney-General, as it has to a great many excellent 
lawyers, entirely within the decision of the Supreme Court 
as constitutional to provide that all corporations engaged 
in a business for profit should pay to the Central Government 
an excise tax equal to one per cent, of their net earnings. 
At first it w T as thought that two per cent, would produce about 
$25,000,000. Subsequent investigation seemed to show that 
this was a very decided underestimate, and that one per 
cent, would produce that amount, and that that amount 
would be sufficient to meet the probable difference 
between the net receipts from the internal revenue 
and tariff bill and the expenditures of the Government. 
The provisions for the corporation tax in the bill exempt 
all corporations w T hose net income does not exceed $5,000. 
It is, therefore, in effect an income tax; that is it taxes 
earnings actually made. It is a tax upon success and not 
failure. 

Complaint is made that it is a discriminating tax in that 
it taxes business conducted under a corporate form, whereas 
when the business is conducted by a partnership the busi- 
ness escapes taxation altogether. The justification for the 
distinction arises from the advantages which the business 
enjoys under a corporate form, first in that the individuals 
who really own the business by being the share owners of 
the corporation have only a limited liability and are not 
bound to meet the debts of the corporation beyond their 
slock investment, or in some States more than 100 per cent, 
beyond their stock investment; and, on the other hand, 
the advantage of a permanent establishment in the busi- 
ness, because no matter whether the present owners and 
managers die or not, the business continues in its corporate 



AND STATE PAPERS 251 

form without a settlement thereof in the administration 
of the estate of the deceased owners. 

Again, objection is made that the tax is really a tax upon 
the dividends of the corporation, and that in the stock of 
the corporation may be interested a great many people 
having but little property — widows, orphans and others. 
I am not disposed to deny that theoretically it would be better 
to impose a higher rate of taxation upon those having large 
fortunes than upon those having only a competence. As 
I shall elaborate farther on, I am very much opposed to 
exempting incomes above the actual living wage, because 
I think every one in the Government ought to pay something 
toward its sustenance, because every one derives benefit 
from it, and while an increase in the percentage of the tax, 
as the fortune of the individual taxed increases, is fair, it 
is fair because the burden of the taxation at the same rate 
is heavier upon a man with a small income than upon a 
man with a large income or fortune. Still it is not practi- 
cal with such a tax as the corporation tax, where you tax 
the sources of the income before it reaches the individual 
who is to pay the tax, to impose a graduated tax, and the 
tax upon the net earnings of the corporation of one per cent. 
or two per cent, is so small that small holders of the shares 
will feel the burden lo be very light. In all probability 
it will hardly affect their dividends at all, because most 
corporations do not declare all their earnings in dividends, 
and will simply take the tax out of the surplus. 

We have had very little experience with income taxes in 
this country, but those we have had have shown the inquisi- 
torial feature of the tax to be most harassing; that is, the 
power given to collectors of internal revenue and deputy 
collectors to look into a man's private affairs and to compel 
him to produce his private papers in order that his actual 
income may be ascertained. Moreover, the most objection- 
able feature of the tax is the premium upon perjury which 
it offers to those who were willing to conceal their income 
— a matter not at all difficult to do — and who thus subject 



252 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to a much heavier proportionate burden, those who are 
conscientious in making their returns and who pay the tax 
as the law intended. So great was this evil in the levy of 
an income tax in England that when that tax was imposed 
directly upon individuals, as was proposed here in the 
so-called income tax amendment bill, it was found that the 
proceeds of the tax at 10 per cent, were less than the pro- 
ceeds of an income tax of 5 per cent, imposed as our corpora- 
tion tax is, not upon the individuals directly but upon 
the income before it came into their hands. This is a 
practical argument in favor of the corporation income tax 
as against an individual income tax that is altogether 
unanswerable. 

In England, after a hundred years of experience, the 
income tax is levied in only exceptional instances on the 
individual directly. It is first levied on the declared divi- 
dends of corporations; secondly, on rents before they leave 
the hands of the tenants, and, finally, on the individual 
with respect to matters that are not covered by rents and 
corporate investments. 

Another distinction which is made in the English law, and 
which commends itself to every one with a sense of justice, 
is that the income tax on passive and permanent invest- 
ments like the stocks and bonds in a corporation, should be 
higher than on earned incomes, that is, incomes earned by 
the services of the individual as salary, or as a professional 
income. Earned incomes thus described are really the pro- 
ceeds of an application of the capital of the individual which 
is being consumed and will be entirely used up at the end 
of his professional life of twenty or thirty years, whereas the 
income from corporate and business investments will con- 
tinue permanently without regard to whether the owner 
lives or dies, and will pass on by succession of law undimin- 
ished and without reducing the capital. This distinction 
justifies making a difference between a tax upon the income 
of corporations and that of individuals where they earn their 
income by services, either by making the rate less or by 



AND STATE PAPERS 253 

not taxing the earned incomes at all. The latter is the 
effect of the corporation tax. 

Another criticism of the corporation tax in the present 
bill is that only shares of stock in corporate interprises are 
thus taxed, and that those who own bonds secured by mort- 
gage upon the entire property or plant of the corporation, 
do not pay any tax at all. This is true, and the defect was 
fully recognized by those who drafted the corporation tax. 
They would have been glad if possible to impose a tax upon 
the bondholders who are only less interested in the earnings 
and success of the corporations than are stockholders; but 
the difficulty of including them and of collecting from the 
corporation before the payment of interest on the bonds, 
an income tax proportioned to a percentage of the interest 
to be paid on the bonds, was that Congress could not author- 
ize a corporation to recoup itself in the payment of such a 
tax from the interest to be paid, because thus to impose a 
tax on the bondholder proportioned to the interest he received 
would be in violation of the Constitution as interpreted by 
the Supreme Court, as an income tax not apportioned among 
the States. Now, if the proposed amendment to the Con- 
stitution authorizing the imposition of an income tax without 
apportioning it among the States according to population 
passes, it will be possible to add to our corporation tax the 
feature of imposing a tax on the bonded interest in that 
corporation by a percentage tax upon the interest to be paid, 
thus reducing the amount of interest which the corporation 
would pay to the bondholder to the extent of the tax col- 
lected. This would make the corporation tax a more 
beneficial measure, and one reaching interests that ought 
to be reached, because under modern systems of financing 
corporations, the bondholders and the stockholders are all 
of them in a sense joint investors and a corporation income 
tax ought to include them all. Under the conditions that 
existed with reference to the Constitution it seems to me 
clear that the corporation tax is an equitable burden — one 
reaching active business not too heavy to retard it, but enough 



254 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to collect a substantial revenue from those who are success- 
ful in business. It is a tax easily collected — one that no 
corporation can escape — one in which perjury can not play 
any important part at all in an effort to escape it. 

Another feature of it is that incidentally it will give the 
Federal Government an opportunity to secure most valuable 
information in respect to the conduct of corporations, and 
their actual financial condition which they are required to 
show in general terms in a public return. In addition, the 
law provides the means under proper limitations of investiga- 
ting fully and in detail their course of business. This is to be 
done only after the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
shall have ascertained from evidence that their returns 
required by law are not correct. Then the evidence which 
he secures by his investigations of books and papers and 
examination of witnesses is not to be made public but is 
to be held in the secret archives of the Government until 
the President shall deem it of public interest and according 
to justice to make the facts known. Up to this time we have 
no adequate statistics concerning our corporations. Even 
the stockholders, whatever their right may be to know the 
course of business of corporations, are generally in a state 
of complete ignorance, and any instrumentality by which 
the corporation shall be compelled to disclose with accuracy 
a general statement of their condition certainly makes for 
the public good. Indirectly it would help very much in 
another revision of the tariff, whenever that shall come, 
because corporations engaged in business said to be affected 
by the tariff will have upon record in Washington their exact 
financial condition from year to year in the matter of their 
income, their expenditures and their debts. 

Having said this much with respect to the corporation 
tax as it is, I want to say a few words in favor of the passage 
of the income tax amendment as proposed by Congress to 
the States. Assuming the constitutional authority to have 
been given, I am opposed to a general individual income 
tax law except in times of great national stress. I am 



AND STATE PAPERS 255 

opposed to it because of the difficulty already alluded to, 
that it puts such a premium on perjury as to have led other 
governments to abandon that method of levying an income 
tax and of imposing the tax wherever possible on the sources 
of income in the hands of those who are not ultimately to 
pay it. The instance I have already given of an increase 
of 100 per cent, in the proceeds of the tax when changed 
from a personal tax to one upon the sources of the income, 
like our corporation tax, is a most forceful argument in favor 
of the proposition — that the inquisitorial feature of an 
income tax levied directly upon the person, together with 
the inevitable opportunities for escape from the tax by use 
of perjury, make it desirable if possible to avoid such a direct 
method of levying an income tax. 

But I am most strongly in favor of the adoption by the 
States of the amendment authorizing Congress to impose 
an income tax without apportioning it among the States 
according to population; and I am strongly in favor of 
this because in times of great stress, if war or some other 
calamity were to visil I his country and we should need to 
strain our resources, the income tax would be one of the 
essential instruments by which we could collect a large 
amount of money to enable us to meet the exigency. It 
has been so in the past, for during the Civil War it was under- 
stood that the levy of an income lax without apportion- 
ment was constitutional, and such a tax was levied and was 
collected. And I consider it in the Constitution, as at pres- 
ent construed, an elemental weakness on the part of the 
Central Government not to be able in times of emergency 
to levy such a tax. 

Of "course, it will be said by (hose who are opposed to the 
income tax that there will be a disposition to impose a direct 
income tax merely as a means of collecting ordinary income 
taxes in normal times and that no distinction can be made 
in the Constitution by which the power to levy such a tax 
can be limited to times of emergency, because it is impossible 
to describe what the emergency should be. I agree with 



256 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that, and I agree that there is a probability that at times 
the desire to tax accumulated wealth will lead to the move- 
ment in favor of a direct income tax, but I am also con- 
fident that its inquisitorial character, and the fact that in 
time the opportunity for perjury will show it to be so inef- 
fective in reaching the persons whom it is sought to reach 
by a proportionate burden, that it will be wise to adopt the 
course taken in England and other countries having great 
experience with such a tax, and to follow the course of our 
corporation tax rather than by direct personal imposition, 
except in great emergencies. 

If the income tax amendment passes, as I hope it may, 
we can then enlarge the corporation tax so as to include a 
proper burden on the bondholders in corporations as well 
as upon the shareholders; and this will make this instru- 
ment of taxation even more equitable than it now is. 

Those who favor a directly personal income tax to use 
it for the purpose of permanently restraining great wealth 
will probably find it ineffective for the reasons given. 
I have already considered in a speech which I made at 
Columbus in 1907 how our great fortunes could be divided 
without drastic confiscatory methods. It seems to me now, 
as it did then, that the proper authority to reduce the size 
of fortune is the State rather than the Central Government. 
Let the State pass laws of inheritance which shall require 
the division of great fortunes between the children of the 
decedants, and shall not permit a multi-millionaire to leave 
his fortune in trust so as to keep it in a mass ; make much 
more drastic the rule against perpetuities which obtains at 
common law; and then impose a heavy and graduated inheri- 
tance tax, which shall enable the State to share largely in 
the proceeds of such large accumulations of wealth that 
could hardly have been brought about save through its 
protection and its aid. In this way, gradually but effectively, 
the concentration of wealth in one hand or a few hands 
will be neutralized and the danger to the Republic that has 
been anticipated by a continuation through generations of 



AND STATE PAPERS 257 

such accumulating fortunes, will be obviated. The use of 
the income tax itself for this purpose will, I think, never be 
very successful because of the defect already indicated — 
the difficulty of finding the income upon which to impose 
the tax and the opportunity that perjury will offer to escape 
it. An inheritance tax can not be thus escaped because 
when a man dies his property must come before some court 
for consideration and adjudication with a view to its legal 
transmission, and therefore those who are to succeed, how- 
ever reluctant, must always make a showing of just what 
the deceased left in order that they may acquire valid title 
to the succession. 

• It seems, therefore, that the present Congress has taken 
the wisest course in adopting as much of the feature of an 
income tax as conforms to the Constitution, and by recom- 
mending an amendment to the Constitution which shall 
enable us to round out and perfect this corporation tax 
so as to make it more equitable, and so as to make it an 
instrument of supervision of corporate wealth by Federal 
authority. I doubt not that the information thus obtained 
may be made a basis for further legislation of a regulative 
character, applicable only to those corporations whose busi- 
ness is so largely of an interstate character as to justify 
greater restrictions and more direct supervision. 



XXVII 

ADDRESS AT THE MORMON TABERNACLE, 
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 

(SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I THANK you from the bottom of my heart for this 
expression of welcome and good will. I have been 
oppressed since I have come into this magnificent structure 
with the thought that you had gathered here in part to hear 
me, and that I have nothing to address to you worthy of 
such a magnificent presence. I am told that my distin- 
guished predecessor, under the inspiration of an audience 
like this, delivered an address in the nature of a sermon 
upward of two hours in length. Now, he had the capacity; 
he had the spirit; and he had the mission to make such a 
preachment, of moral force and inspiration. He knew 
how to appeal to the best that is in a man and a woman, 
and arouse them to uplift themselves to higher standards 
and higher ideals. But it has not been given to me to exer- 
cise that great influence which was his and which shone 
forth from him as he stood before men upon a platform. 
Yet I have felt that on this Sunday morning it was necessary 
for me to make such effort as I could to follow him in some- 
thing that may sound a bit like a sermon. And as sermons 
are begun with the quotation of a text, having more or less 
relation to what follows it, I am going to give you the text 
from Proverbs: "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but 
grievous words stir up anger." 

It is a text that has enforced itself upon my mind during 
the last ten years with especial emphasis, because I have come 
into contact with Oriental peoples and with those descended 

258 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 259 

from the Latin races of Europe, and I have had a chance 
to compare their views of life and their methods of speech, 
and their social conventions and amenities with those of the 
Anglo Saxon race. We Anglo Saxons are, we admit, a great 
race. We have accomplished wonders in hammering out 
against odds that seemed insurmountable the principles of 
civil liberty and popular government and making them prac- 
tical and showing to the world their benefits. But in so 
doing, and in the course of our life, it seems to me we have 
ignored some things that our fellows of Southern climes 
have studied and made much of; and those are the forms of 
speech and the method of e very-day treatment between 
themselves and others. An Oriental will tell you in all the 
various beautiful forms, of his anxiety for your health, his 
respect for your character, his almost love of you and your 
family, and he will put you in a good humor with him and 
with the world, and he will not expect exactly that you take 
him literally but he will hope that you will understand that 
he has good will toward you, as you have toward him. Now 
that, to our Anglo Saxon nature, seems at first hypocritical, 
when probably you think, and perhaps rightly, that he does 
not care much about you at any rate, but he understands 
and hopes that you understand that what he means to do 
is to make life more agreeable to you and life more agree- 
able to him, to lubricate, so to speak, the wheels of society, 
and to make things move more smoothly without jarring 
and jolting the nerves of either side. At first that seems 
superficial to us, who prefer "No" and "Yes," and abrupt 
methods and the communication in the shortest and curt est 
sentences. But, my friends, we have much to learn from 
people of that kind, of courtesy and politeness. 

The truth is that a man's life in his family, with his wife, 
with his children, with his mother, with his neighbors, 
is not made up of grandstand plays and defiance of the 
elements and all that sort of thing. It is made up of a 
series of little acts, and those little acts and little self-restraints 
are what go to make up the man's character. I agree that 



260 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

there are men, and many of them, I hope, who are a great 
deal better than they seem to be in their families and to their 
wives and to their children and to their neighbors, and that 
when exigencies arise they do betray and show forth elements 
of strength of character that ought to commend them to 
their fellow citizens and their families. But it does seem 
as if they were depriving their families and their neighbors 
of something in their not living up to that standard all the 
time in little things as well as in big things; and the truth 
is that if we yield to negligence in the little things, if we 
yield to the momentary desire to be lazy and not attentive, 
and not courteous to every one, so as to make every one 
feel as comfortable as possible during the day, we are going 
to cut down that higher character that we assume to have 
under greater exigencies when we are showing forth its 
strength. And so I say that our friends of the Southern 
climes and our Oriental friends have touched a point in 
philosophy, the philosophy of life, that we may well learn 
from them, and introduce into our lives more courtesy and 
more politeness — more real, genuine desire to make every- 
body happy by the little things of life, which after all con- 
stitute nearly all there is in life. 

I don't for a moment decry the necessity at times for speak- 
ing out and speaking out with all the emphasis possible, but 
what I am urging upon you, and what I have seen in other 
countries with the advantage of having had an opportunity 
to see both civilizations, is the added happiness that comes 
to the whole human race when each member of it in a 
small but effective way tries to make each other member 
whom he happens to meet happy for the moment, for life 
is made up of moments and that contributes to the happiness 
of all. 

Now, another corollary from the text which I would like 
to draw, is that we ought to ascribe to our neighbors and 
to those with whom we come in contact, or with respect to 
whose action we have to express an opinion — we ought 
to ascribe as high motives as we can. We ought to avoid 



AND STATE PAPERS 261 

this acrimonious discussion, that consigns everybody who 
is opposed to our view to perdition, and to having the most 
corrupt motives, and that ascribes to those who stand with 
us only the purest. Life is too valuable to waste in anger 
and hatred, and the charging and denunciation of our fellow- 
men when they don't deserve it. 

Now, there are to me some things as full of humor as 
possible. Just within the recent three or four months we 
have had an illustration. You know something about the 
pure-food law which has been passed for the purpose of 
saving the public from food that will injure the health, 
or from deceiving the public by giving to it in a form 
that does deceive something for consumption as food. Well, 
there has arisen in this reform a discussion over — what ? You 
don't know what it is, and I don't know what it is, but for 
lack of more definite information we will call it benzoate 
of soda. Now that question has been submitted to experts. 
Some experts have said that it was deleterious when used 
in connection with food, and other experts have said that 
it was harmless, but if you read the discussions you will 
think that benzoate of soda is a moral line and that any 
who take their place on one side of it are doomed to hopeless 
corruption and those on the other side are carrying on a 
cause of the highest morality. I don't mean to say that 
the pure-food law is not one of the most important laws 
on the Federal statute books — and it ought to be. But 
what I do mean to say is that in its enforcement and in view- 
ing its construction, we must assume that where men differ 
they differ honestly unless a corrupt motive can be shown, 
and that while it may be necessary or useful for the public 
press to encourage the idea that somebody is being moved 
by corrupt motives, in order to make the headlines a little 
more salacious, and attractive, and increase the circulation 
of the paper, it is not necessary for the happiness of the 
people that it be thought that that question presents a great 
moral issue which Ss going to divide men between the bad 
and the good. We will reach a proper solution some time. 



202 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

It will probably be found, when the differences are examined 
closely, that those who oppose each other do not stand so 
far apart. 

Another subject that is making a great deal of trouble 
is the question of what is whiskey, and I have that subject 
on my hands now. I get letter after letter indicating that 
if I decide that whiskey is one thing, the whole pure-food 
law might just as well be abolished, and that I will yield 
to an element in the community that ought to be condemned 
and that ought to have no right to live here anyhow. It 
puts a man in rather an embarrassing situation when the 
question is really one of fact and law, mixed together, largely 
one of fact, and one in which I say in passing I have no 
expert knowledge. 

The truth is, my friends, this matter of hatred and resent- 
ment which accompanies the attributing of a bad motive 
to those who differ with you is a waste of nervous strength, 
of time, of worry, without accomplishing one single good thing. 
I don't know how it has been with you, but it has happened 
time and time again with me that some man has done some- 
thing that I did not like which I thought had a personal 
bearing, and that I have said in my heart, times will change 
and I will get even with that gentleman. I don't profess 
to be free from those feelings at all. But it has frequently 
happened, I may say generally, that the time did come when 
I could get even with that man, and when that time came, 
it seemed to me that I would demean myself and that it 
would show me no man at all if I took advantage of the 
opportunity. 

Now I am going to tell you a story that interested me 
greatly when it was told to me, and that I can make appli- 
cable to this sermon, by the reason for its introduction and 
its telling. When I was Solicitor-General, it became my 
duty, in company with the Attorney-General, to call upon 
each of the Justices of the Supreme Court in Washington; 
and among those on the Bench at that time was that dis- 
tinguished statesman, that great orator, and that most excel- 



AND STATE PAPERS - 263 

lent judge, Mr. Justice Lamar of Mississippi. As you know, 
he was on the other side supporting the Confederacy during 
the Civil War. It happened that we found him the night of 
our visit in a most talkative and communicative mood, and 
when in that mood he was as charming a man as I have ever 
met. Something arose which led him to say a number of 
things along the line that I have followed in what I have 
said to you — that early in life he rather cherished resent- 
ments and hatreds, and he thought it was an evidence of 
great strength of character if only he could remember them 
a long time; but as he had grown older, as God had seemed 
to be better to him, as the years had grown mellow, and as 
he had come to love every one of his race, with real affection 
and interest, he had seen the utter lack of wisdom in allow- 
ing his time and mind and nerves to be taken up in cherishing 
those unworthy thoughts. "Well," I said, "Mr. Justice 
Lamar, you seem to have had some experience. Perhaps 
you can say what has led you to this." "Well," he said, 
"there are a good many instances, but I can give you one. 
I was the agent of the Confederacy in visiting England to 
secure the recognition of our belligerency during the Civil 
War. Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell were Ambassadors really 
but I was the active agent, and a resolution had been intro- 
duced in the lower house of Parliament, the House of Com- 
mons, recognizing the belligerency and, I am not sure but 
the independence of the Confederacy. Our great friend 
was a member of Parliament named Mr. Roebuck, and 
walking on the Thames embankment the day before the 
resolution was to be discussed in the House, he expressed 
his great confidence in the success of our side and in the 
passage of the resolution; and I said to him, 'Yes, Mr. 
Roebuck, I hope that is true, but every once in a while 
there comes over me the fear that the House will be carried 
off its feet by the eloquence of John Bright.' 'Oh,' said 
Mr. Roebuck, 'Mr. Bright is a great orator for a set 
occasion, but in a debate I have measured swords with 
him myself, and I may say I didn't come off second 



264 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

best. Or, to change the metaphor, it was a case of the 
swordfish and the whale.' I was not entirely satisfied," 
continued the Justice, " but with hopefulness I attended the 
House of Commons the next morning and had as my com- 
pany Mr. Charles Dickens, the novelist. Seated just beyond 
Mr. Dickens was a gentleman of the most distinguished 
appearance, whose face I had never seen before in the flesh 
but whom I soon recognized as the Reverend Henry Ward 
Beecher, who had come over to England to defend the North- 
ern cause. We three sat there and listened to the debate; 
there was first an address by Sir Roundell Palmer, the 
Attorney-General, who defended the resolution; then Mr. 
Gladstone, who did not support the resolution, although 
he expressed great sympathy with the Southern Confed- 
eracy." 

And so Mr. Justice Lamar went on describing one speaker 
and another. He loved oratory; he could repeat what he 
had heard, and I am sorry I can not repeat it to you. But 
finally said he, " Mr. Roebuck arose and proceeded to attack 
the North, its motives in assuming to be interested in the 
freeing of the slaves, its greed; its character as nothing but 
a commercial people," and so on and so on. To use Mr. 
Justice Lamar's expression, "He did give it to you fellows 
in a way that I very much enjoyed and I could not help, 
every time that he made a point and sent it home, looking 
around Mr. Dickens to see how Mr. Beecher took it." 

" Well," the Justice said, " the debate went on and the hour 
for dinner approached, and I was hoping that the debate 
was over, because it seemed clearly with us and that no 
other prominent personage would take part, when I heard 
a voice like an organ note, a voice of volume and sweetness, 
the like of which I had never heard before and never have 
heard since, and I followed the note to the lips of the speaker. 
When I saw the speaker I saw that the whale was in the 
fight, and that John Bright had risen to meet the occasion. 
And bitter as I was on the subject, full as I was of the wrongs 
of the South and the righteousness of our cause, I could 



AND STATE PAPERS 265 

not but appreciate the strength of his sentences and the 
greatness of his oratory, and, to complete my humiliation 
and disappointment, every time in a glowing period that 
he drove home what he called the iniquity of slavery and 
the iniquity of our cause, Mr. Beecher leaned around Mr. 
Dickens to see how I took it. 

"Now," said Justice Lamar, "from that moment, I hated 
Mr. Beecher, but subsequently in Mr. Beecher's life, when 
he became subjected to charges and a great strain and a 
trial that developed the real sweetness of his character and 
the grandeur and force of what he was as a man, I lost all 
that feeling. I did not rejoice in the trials that he had, 
but I came personally to know him and to recognize in that 
instance, as in many others, the utter fatuity, the utter 
uselessness of cherishing a personal feeling, a personal 
hatred beyond the moment when you can suppress it." 

And so, my friends, what I am urging is less acrimony 
in public discussion — more charity with respect to each 
other as to what moves each man to do what he does do — 
and that you do not charge dishonesty and corruption 
until you have a real reason for doing so. I am the last 
man to pardon or mitigate wrongs against the public or 
against the individual. I believe, and I regret to say it, 
that throughout this country the administration of the 
criminal law and the prosecution of crime is a disgrace to 
our civilization; but it is one thing to prosecute a criminal 
when you have evidence and it is another thing to ascribe 
motives to the acts of men when you haven't any evidence 
and are just relying on your imagination in respect to what 
you infer. 

My friends, I can not in the presence of so great an audi- 
ence as this, an audience that inspires one with higher 
thought of country and patriotism, fail to refer to the depth 
of feeling that has been awakened in me, of gratitude for 
your welcome, of an appreciation of the basis of that welcome 
which is loyalty to your flag and country. I understand 
that in the great office of the President the personality of 



2G6 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the man who fills it for the time sinks, and that the 
office typifies the nation, so that all people of whatever 
party ought to feel that toward the man who for the 
time being holds the office they are manifesting a respect 
for the nation for which they live and for which they would 
be willing to die. 

The advantage of such a trip as that I am taking is of 
course that I come into personal touch with the people, and 
I am thus enabled to learn a great many things which other- 
wise I should be ignorant of, and on the other hand that 
they come into personal touch with me and find out the 
kind of personality in a way — very superficially — that they 
have selected through good fortune or misfortune tempo- 
rarily to preside over them. A man of an inquiring mind 
said to me the other day, "It is quite true that you are 
speaking a good deal so that the people may learn something 
about your views, but how do you, if you do all the talking, 
learn anything about what the people think?" Well, 
stated simply, that would seem to be unanswerable unless 
you have a knowledge of the people whom I meet along the 
way, of the persons with whom I talk and of the opportu- 
nities for observation that are presented in so long a trip 
as that of 13,000 miles. If a man can not absorb a good deal 
from the newspapers, from talks along the way, of what 
is going on in a community, he had better not take a trip. 
But if he has the ordinary pores in his skin and the ordinary 
brain tentacles for holding on to things that are in the air, 
he is apt to get a pretty good knowledge of what is in the 
atmosphere, what is on the earth, in the communities that 
he visits. I am not here to justify my coming, because you 
have been kind enough to be so cordial in your welcome 
that I do not think it is necessary, and yet I do wish 
to explain some of the advantages that come from informa- 
tion at first hand and by personal touch, that one who is 
charged with the responsibility for four years of carrying 
on the executive department of the government may pick 
up. 



AND STATE PAPERS 2G7 

And now, my friends, I say to you again how grateful I 
am for your cordial welcome, and express to you as sincerely 
as possible my earnest hope for your further progress and 
development in order to cap that wonderful advancement 
and seizure of opportunities that this community displays 
in its history. I thank you ! 



XXVIII 

REMARKS AT THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 

(SEPTEMBER 26, 1909) 

Young Men: 

IT IS always a great pleasure for me to attend a Young 
Men's Christian Association in any city and to assist, 
as I have a number of times, in the dedication of new build- 
ings for the purpose of the Association. I have done that 
in I don't know how many cities and even as far as Shanghai 
and Hong-Kong and Manila, and the reason is because I 
feel that the Young Men's Christian Association supplies a 
need in every community which no church, no institution, 
nothing else that I know of can meet. It supplies an oppor- 
tunity for rational amusement, and at the same time for the 
study of ideals and for religious worship at appropriate times ; 
and it saves young men of the city who have not the oppor- 
tunity of home surroundings. As our cities grow, the number 
of young men who leave their homes in the country and go 
to the city increases and it offers to them an opportunity 
for a rational occupation of their leisure hours — hours 
which if they do not have the opportunity to spend in rational 
amusement and occupation are only too frequently devoted 
to vicious pursuits. Now, that is true in every city. It is 
especially true in the newer and younger cities. It is very 
true in the Orient where, so far away from home, young men 
especially forget the restraints and the obligations that neigh- 
borhood life puts upon them, and they first take one drink 
and then another, and as there is nothing else to do, a third, 
and as those drinks in those far distant countries seem to 
offer a stimulus that is agreeable, the end is not until they 
are in the gutter. 

268 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 2G9 

I congratulate you sincerely on the evidence of the especial 
excellence of your Association here. I am told that two or 
three times you have taken prizes offered to those interested 
in the Associations the country over for the excellence of 
your work and the skill and persistence of those who superin- 
tend it and engage in it. That is an admirable sign of your 
usefulness to the community. The Young Men's Christian 
Association offers a lesson which can not be too deeply 
impressed upon the people — the lesson of tolerance. It 
means the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God, 
and the recognition of the advantages of all religion within 
the Christian brotherhood bringing one nearer to that ideal 
that we all aspire to and from which we so often fall away. 

Now, my friends, I should be glad to talk with you longer 
on some of the details of Young Men's Christian xAssocia- 
tion work, but it is impossible for me to do so. I can only 
express my pleasure at having this opportunity in the some- 
what strenuous program of the last three days to express to 
you my congratulation on the work that you have done 
and my hope for your continued usefulness in the com- 
munity. 



P 



XXIX 
ADDRESS AT SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, 

(SEPTEMBER 28, 1909) 

Ladies and Gentlemen of Spokane; Fellow Citizens of Wash- 
ington : 
1AM going to take up to-day the subject of the conserva- 
tion of our natural resources. This has been given 
a very wide scope. I do not propose to cover the whole 
ground to-day. I shall confine my attention to those parts 
of the policy which are certainly within the jurisdiction of 
the National Government, and which especially concern the 
country west of the Missouri River. 

I refer, first, to the preservation of the national forests; 
second, to the reclamation of the arid and semi-arid lands 
by irrigation; third, to the disposition of water-power sites 
upon public lands with proper restrictions upon the use both 
in respect to the compensation, its extent in point of time, 
and the adjustment of rates to be charged to the public by 
the beneficiary of the grant; fourth, to the disposition of coal, 
oil and phosphate lands owned by the Government with such 
restrictions as will permit their development for private profit, 
and yet will prevent monopoly and extortion in the sale of 
the product. 

The national forests as reserved by Executive Order con- 
tain about 1G7,000,000 acres of land in the United States 
proper. All of this land is now under the direct control of 
the Forestry Bureau and is being preserved from fire and from 
other destruction, and is being treated in accordance with the 
best modern methods of treating forests under the supervision 
of Mr. Pinchot, the Chief Forester, and the head of the 
Bureau of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. 

270 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 271 

It appears that the Government timber land is only 
about one-fourth of the timber land owned by private individ- 
uals, and that only three per cent, of the timber land owned 
by private individuals is properly looked after according 
to modern methods of forestry. The destruction by fire 
of forests is estimated to be $50,000,000 a year. It would 
seem, therefore, imperative that the States should exercise 
their jurisdiction over these forests to which I have referred 
and which are held by private individuals, and require some 
system of fire protection and the adoption of the best methods 
of forestry. It would seem that the States have a right to do 
this because of the general interest which the public has in 
the preservation of the forests, in their equalizing of the water 
supply, and in their effect upon the climate. The equalization 
of the water supply, of course, prevents erosion of the soil 
and the wasteful destruction of the best part of the soil, 
which is carried down the river with the floods. 

The regulation of forests in private ownership within 
State boundaries is plainly not within the scope of Federal 
jurisdiction, and it should be undertaken by the States. 
I do not think the States have taken up the matter with as 
much energy as they ought, and they have not improved the 
opportunity which was given them by way of example by the 
Forestry Bureau of the United States. The question whether 
the Federal Government, with the purpose of equalizing 
the flow of water in navigable streams, and to promote 
navigation during the entire year, may enter upon a plan of 
regulating existing forests and reforesting certain denuded 
territory in the States, I need not now discuss. The subject 
would involve a wider discussion than I have time to give it. 

The plan of the Government to reclaim the arid and 
semi-arid lands manifested in the reclamation act has been 
carried out most rapidly by the Bureau charged with its 
execution. I had the honor the other day in Colorado 
of opening the most ambitious of these projects, at least 
the most difficult of them — the Gunnison tunnel — which 
is to bring water into a valley in Colorado, known as the 



272 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Uncompaghre Valley, with some 150,000 acres, and to put 
it in a condition to grow fruit and cereals. There are some 
thirty projects which have been entered upon by the Reclama- 
tion Bureau, and I believe that all of them are to be com- 
mended for their excellent adaptation to the purpose for 
which they were erected, and for the speed with which the 
work has been done. It is said, however, that in the planning 
of a number of these improvements, the enthusiasm of the 
projectors has carried them to a point where they begin to 
feel embarrassed in the matter of resources with which to 
complete the projects, and begin to show that prudence was 
not observed by those engaged in executing the act; that the 
projects were too many and more than could be completed 
in a reasonable time after their beginning, because of a lack 
of funds. The reclamation act provides for the expenditure 
of funds made up of the proceeds of the sale of public lands 
and reimbursed from time to time by the instalments to be 
paid by the settlers who take up the irrigated land, and it 
also provides that no part of a project is to be contracted 
for and begun, until the money for the completion of that 
part of the project contracted for shall be in the reclama- 
tion fund. Now, it appears that it will take $10,000,000 or 
more, which is not available in the reclamation fund at 
present, fully to complete the projects, and it also appears 
that a great number of persons by reason of the beginning 
of the projects have been led into the making of settlements, 
the expenditure of time and labor, with the hope and upon 
the reliance that such reclamation enterprises would be 
carried through in a reasonable time. 

I think there is no doubt that it was the intention of Con- 
gress that projects should not be multiplied in such a way 
that they could not be completed within a reasonable time 
out of the reclamation funds provided by the sale of public 
lands, and it probably would have been wiser to adhere strictly 
to the limitation thus construed, even though the language 
of the act, by dividing up the projects into parts in terms 
permits the beginning of more projects than there was likely 



AND STATE PAPERS 273 

to be money enough to complete within a reasonable time. 
The pressure was doubtless very great, and the reclamation 
service yielded to the pressure within the letter of the law, 
and now find themselves in the situation described. The 
work has been well done and reflects great credit on the 
engineers who have had charge of it. But something must 
be done to relieve the present situation, which is one of 
disappointed hopes to many settlers upon the arid lands, 
who counting upon an early completion of the projects 
undertaken have invested their money and spent their time 
and seem to be no nearer the goal of satisfactory irrigation 
than they were when the projects were begun. I think it 
wise to apply to Congress for relief by urging the passage 
of an enabling act, which shall permit the Secretary of the 
Interior to issue bonds in the sum of $10,000,000 or more, 
to complete all the projects now projected. These bonds 
should be redeemed from the money paid into the reclama- 
tion funds after the completion of the projects. 

From conversation with the Senators who have visited 
much of the reclamation work and given an examination to 
its progress, I infer that such a proposal as this seems to 
them to be the best way out of the present difficulty, and I 
shall take pleasure in recommending the passage of such a 
remedial measure by I lie next Congress. 

No one can visit this western country without being over- 
whelmingly convinced of the urgent necessity for the proper 
treatment of arid and semi-arid lands by the extension of 
systems of irrigation. The results in the productivity of 
the soil when irrigated arc marvellous. The mere fact that 
the reclamation service has gone ahead too fast ought not 
to prevent Congress from lending its aid to overcome the 
difficulty. We shall know better in the further treatment 
of the subject and in the further use of the $50,000,000 fund 
how to avoid putting ourselves in a similar position again. 
Meantime irrigation works under private auspices are being 
projected in every direction, and the prospect of reclaiming 
millions of acres from the deserts is most encouraging. 



274 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The examples of Government engineering and of ingenuity 
in planning the structures in these various Government 
projects for irrigation are of immense utility as models for 
private enterprise. 

One subject that is now being agitated in some quarters 
calls for notice. Payment for irrigated lands is required in 
ten annual instalments. Suggestions are now being made 
that these should be lengthened into a longer term. I 
sincerely hope that Congress will not listen to such appeals. 
It may be well to make the first three or four instalments 
nominal, but after that time the instalments should be 
large enough to pay the total amount due, upon which no 
interest is calculated, in ten years. Any other course will 
encourage a lack of thrift and industry and will greatly embar- 
rass the extension and continuance of the work of irrigation. 

When the Government became possessed of its public 
domain and took measures to secure its settlement by the 
passage of the homestead act and other acts offering, after 
certain steps prescribed, to vest title to a specific part of the 
public lands in individuals, the chief object of Congress 
seemed to be to secure development by inducing people 
to settle on public lands and acquire it for themselves. The 
thought of conserving the resources which were thus opened 
to private acquisition hardly occurred to Congress. Its 
generosity to the Pacific railroads in offering the public 
lands in such extensive grants to them is an instance of the 
spirit which actuated Congress thirty and forty and fifty 
years ago. I am not criticizing Congress in the slightest for 
this policy. It certainly was necessary to make extensive 
grants to secure the construction of a railroad which should 
unite the Pacific Coast with the Atlantic Coast, and bring 
closer to the Eastern seaboard the far distant regions of this 
country. I merely refer to it in a historical way to explain 
the character of the statutes now upon the statute books 
with reference to the sale and disposition of public lands. 
There has always been a distinction made between agricul- 
tural lands and mineral lands, because it was recognized that 



AND STATE PAPERS 275 

mineral lands would probably be much more valuable, and a 
different method was required for the acquisition of the one 
from that of the other. But never until now has adequate 
provision been made for a classification of lands so as to 
show distinctly what are mineral lands and what are agri- 
cultural lands. The truth is, that the needs of the country 
have developed so, and the demand for land has so much 
increased, that in order to secure a sensible, business-like 
disposition of the lands remaining in the public domain, 
there must be an authoritative classification of lands by the 
proper bureau so as to show whether they are agricultural 
lands, forest lands or lands available for water power sites 
on the banks of rivers and other streams, or mineral lands, 
coal lands, oil lands, or phosphate lands. Had this classi- 
fication been made earlier, it would have saved a great amount 
of litigation and would have saved to the Government millions 
of acres patented as one kind of land when in fact it was 
another. The classification so far as authorized is being 
rapidly executed by the Geological Survey. After classifica- 
tion, legislation should be and doubtless will be directed 
to the means by which such lands should be disposed of and 
the restrictions specified in the interest of the public upon 
the tenure and use to which the owner is to put such lands. 

As to lands which arc purely agricultural, there would 
seem to be no reason for departing from the ordinary method 
of disposition under the homestead and other laws, including 
the reclamation acts, by which citizens acquire title in 
them. 

With respect to forest lands owned by the public, they 
should be surveyed and held by the Government under the 
regulation of the Forestry Bureau permitting a sale of such 
timber as shall be necessary in the proper forestry preserva- 
tion. 

As to water-power sites, there has been such a change in 
conditions that a special provision should be made in the 
interest of the public for their transfer to private control. 

The development of electrical appliances and the transfer 



276 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of power through electric lines for long distances has made 
the use of water power to produce electricity one of the 
most important sources of power that we have in this country, 
and it will so affect the cost of production in all the fields 
of manufacture and production of the necessities of life as 
to require the Government to retain control over the use by 
private capital of such power when it can only be exercised 
upon sites which belong to the Government. Such sites 
can be properly parted with under conditions of tenure, use 
and compensation, consistent on the one hand with reason- 
able profit to the private capital invested and on the other 
with the right of the public to secure the furnishing of such 
power at reasonable rates to every one. There should be 
a condition of forfeiture if the owner of the power site does 
not within a certain time expend capital sufficient to double 
the power, and after development shall charge rates to the 
public beyond what is a reasonable profit on the capital 
invested in the improvement to be regulated by the Govern- 
ment. The amount of compensation that ought to be 
charged by the Government for the use of the water-power 
sites might perhaps be left to readjustment every ten or 
fifteen or twenty years. The compensation to be charged 
in the outset might well be purely nominal, but after the 
project has become a complete success and the profit has 
grown to a considerable percentage of the amount invested, 
then there Avould seem to be no reason why the public might 
not be benefited by sharing in the profits of the transaction 
to an amount to be fixed upon arbitration or in some other 
method at the end of a stated period of fifteen or twenty 
years. This is an arrangement toward which the tenure of 
all public utilities is tending, and I know of no reason why 
it should not be introduced into the governmental disposition 
of such sources of continuous power as the water sites upon 
public lands are likely to be. I know it has been the course 
in the past under the bounteous and generous disposition of 
the Government to give these water sites away under existing 
inadequate acts; but we have reached a time now when the 



AND STATE PAPERS 277 

importance of these water power sites has greatly increased, 
and there would seem to be no reason why it would interfere 
with a speedy development of the country to impose restric- 
tions upon the use of such water sites, equitable as between 
the public and the investor. This is a matter which Congress 
must take up. The water-power sites are now generally 
disposed of under the same kind of a procedure as that by 
which agricultural lands are taken up, and there is no 
power on the part of the Secretary of the Interior in the 
disposition of such sites to impose the conditions suggested. 
This matter has become so important that under the last 
administration large tracts of lands amounting to upward 
of four million acres were temporarily withdrawn from settle- 
ment in order to prevent the acquisition of water-power sites 
under the general land laws. This amount has been reduced 
under the present administration to 450,000 acres, which 
include even more ascertained water sites than the original 
withdrawals. It should be understood that these with- 
drawals are temporary and can only be justified as made in 
order to permit Congress to legislate on the subject of water- 
power sites. Should Congress conclude not to do so, it would 
be difficult for the executive to find the authority indefinitely 
to withhold these lands from settlement under the general 
laws, on the ground that they contain water-power sites. 
The legislative power is vested in Congress and not in the 
executive. I shall, therefore, urge upon Congress at its 
next session, the passage of a law authorizing the disposition 
of such water-power sites upon terms to be agreed upon by 
the Secretary of the Interior with the proposed purchaser 
of the character already indicated. It may turn out that 
restrictions of this sort are so burdensome as to discourage 
the investment of capital, and it may be necessary to modify 
the requirements on this account. But my own impression 
is that the demand for water power is going to be so great 
that these restrictions will not prevent the investment of 
capital but will ultimately bring to the public coffers a revenue 
from an entirely proper source and will secure the develop- 



278 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ment of a power for manufacturing industries that will 
probably in time exceed the utility and value of coal, and 
become a substitute for it. 

I now come to what should be the proper disposition 
of coal lands, oil lands and phosphate lands. The 
anthracite coal strike evoked a great deal of discussion in 
respect to the evils of the ownership by private persons 
of a monopoly of the coal supply of the country, and led 
Mr. Roosevelt to declare the necessity for preserving from 
acquisition by monopolizing syndicates the public coal 
lands still undisposed of. The truth is that in Alaska the 
deposits of coal are so great that when they are developed 
they will doubtless furnish coal to the entire Pacific Coast. 
They have been reserved from filings since 1906. There 
are some 900 claims but it is probable that under the evidence 
adduced most of these claims will prove to have been defec- 
tive. With such an immense tract of coal land at a place 
near the sea as this is, from which coal easily can be furnished 
by water to the entire Pacific Coast, it becomes highly 
important to settle, before this land shall be disposed of under 
present laws, whether we are to retain any different control 
over these lands from those which have been already sold 
by the Government in other parts of the country. 

It seems wise in the disposition of coal lands, and indeed 
of all mineral lands having agricultural value, to separate 
the surface of the land from its mineral contents; and then 
either to lease the right to take coal from the land at a speci- 
fied compensation per ton — that is to provide a system of 
royalties — or to sell the deposits of the land outright to the 
coal miner. In every case, restriction by way of forfeiture 
ought to be included to prevent a monopoly of ownership 
of the coal land in any one set of men so as to enable them 
to control the price of coal. This is the great object of 
a change in the method of their disposition. 

Some provision should be made with reference to the 
disposition of phosphate land. This land, which is found 
in Wyoming and in Idaho, contains the wonderful fertilizer 



' 



AND STATE PAPERS 279 

which it will soon be necessary to use on much of the land 
in the United States, and as the need for the use of this fer- 
tilizer on much land is growing, we should see to it, if possible, 
that the product be not subject to monopoly or sold outside 
of the United States. 

The oil lands of California, as well as the phosphate lands, 
and practically all the coal lands have been withdrawn 
from settlement in order to await the action of Congress; and 
I expect to recommend to Congress legislation on the lines 
above indicated, with the general purpose of enabling the 
Secretary of the Interior in the administration of the land 
laws to secure more benefit to the public and greater cer- 
tainty in the security against the monopoly of resources. 
What, however, I wish t<> make as plain as possible is that 
these purposes can nol be accomplished unless Congress 
shall act, and that I he burden of carrying out the policy 
of the conservation of our resources, in respect to the matters 
I have discussed is upon Congress. The Executive can 
recommend but the legislature musl enact. After the 
enactment of general authority, it is easy for the Executive 
to make proper regulations calculated to carry out in detail 
the general purpose which Congress had, but the first duty 
in respect to the conservation of resources falls upon Con- 
gress. 

There has been a good deal of discussion in the newspapers 
as to the altitude of the present administration toward the 
general policy of the conservation of resources, and some 
very unfair and altogether unfounded inferences have been 
drawn. The truth is, my administration is pledged to 
follow out the policies of Mr. Roosevelt in this regard, and 
while that pledge does not involve me in any obligation to 
carry them out unless 1 have Congressional authority to do 
so, it does require that I take every step and exert every legiti- 
mate influence upon Congress to enact the legislation which 
shall best subserve the purposes indicated. I do not think 
that Congress, if properly approached, will object to adopt- 
ing legislation of the general character which I have outlined. 



280 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

In the past it has aided the forestry service by what seemed 
to be ample appropriations. It has in a measure provided 
for a classification of lands by the head of the Geological 
Survey. These are both important steps. I hope nothing 
will prevent our taking the further steps needed when 
Congress meets. Secretary Ballinger of the Interior Depart- 
ment, upon whom will fall the duty of executing the new 
provisions of law, is in entire accord with me as to the 
necessity for promoting in every legitimate way the conserva- 
tion of the resources which I have named, and he can be 
counted upon to use the great influence which he must have 
as Secretary of the Interior to this proper end. Indeed, 
it will be found that in his reports as Commissioner of the 
General Land Office he brought these matters to the atten- 
tion of Congress and urged the adoption of a general policy 
along the lines I have indicated. 



XXX 

ADDRESS AT THE ALASKA- YUKON-PACIFIC 
EXPOSITION, SEATTLE, WASH. 

(SEPTEMBER 29, 1909) 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Citizens of Seattle, of Wash- 
ington, and of the Pacific Coast: 

THIS great Alaska- Yukon-Pacific Exposition was the 
objective point on my trip to the West, and I am 
glad to have arrived here after two weeks' travel from 
the old Bay State. As I look about me at this wonderful 
exhibition of the progress of the Northwest, of Alaska, and 
the Pacific Coast, I feel a great pride in having urged upon 
the proper Congressional committee, with all the emphasis 
of which I was capable, the importance and the utility 
of the enterprise. And it is gratifying to know that under the 
administration of Seattle men the Exposition has been a 
great success both in arousing world-wide interest in the 
growth of the Far Northwest and in showing a profit over 
the immense outlay needed in its construction and main- 
tenance. 

When I first planned my visit to Seattle, I had included 
with it a trip to Alaska in order that I might by a personal 
investigation make myself better acquainted with the char- 
acter of that great territory and with the best method of 
securing its development. I greatly regret that the time 
consumed by Congress in the consideration of the tariff 
bill prevented my carrying out the part of the plan embraced 
in a visit to this most interesting territory. 

One of Mr. Seward's substantial claims to the gratitude 
of his countrymen and to a place among the statesmen of 
his country was the broad view which he took of the value 

281 



282 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of Alaska and his wisdom in effecting its purchase. The 
cession of Virginia and the ordinance of 1787, which gave 
to the nation the Middle West, the purchase by Jefferson 
of Louisiana Territory, which carried our domain to the 
Rocky Mountains, the annexation of Texas, and the treaty 
of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, which extended our territory to 
the Pacific Coast, were properly supplemented by the 
acquisition of Alaska, and this Exposition may well be 
regarded as a celebration of the foresight of Seward in his 
policy of expansion. 

It would seem that the wealth of Alaska in minerals, 
in fish, in furs, and even in agriculture, was still but inade- 
quately known, and yet its value from a mere money stand- 
point to the nation, as shown by the wealth which has been 
extracted from it, exceeds by many fold the cost of it to the 
Government of the United States. A review of the history 
of the territory will show that Congress has been very slow 
to extend to it a proper form of government. 

Alaska is a country of immense expanse, and the govern- 
mental needs of the southeastern portion near to Washington 
and the Northwest are quite different from those of Nome 
and the Seward peninsula and of the valley of the Yukon. 
Such a territory has need of local legislation and local 
government, which can only be understood by those who are 
on the ground, and it is utterly impossible and impractical 
for Congress in its legislation to govern the details by legis- 
lation required for the best development of the territory. 
There has been no authority in the territory having an 
adequate jurisdiction to meet the exigencies of such a young 
but potentially prosperous territory. 

It has been proposed that Congress should give to Alaska 
the regular form of territorial government under which 
a legislature and a Governor might be elected, and between 
the two they might be given the powers ordinarily given to 
the legislature and executive of regularly organized ter- 
ritories. I think this would be a great mistake, because I 
don't think that the territory has a population of sufficient 



AND STATE PAPERS 283 

number or sufficient stability and permanence of residence 
to warrant the delegation to a locally elected legislature of 
such authority. Many of the places in Alaska, where there 
is a considerable population, are nothing but mining camps, 
with all the migratory and temporary features of such settle- 
ments. More than that, the population is so small, as 
compared with the vast expanse of the territory, that it 
would be unwise to provide that a comparatively small 
population in southeastern Alaska should elect representa- 
tives and legislate for the enormous territory reaching from 
British Columbia clear to the Bering Sea and the Arctic 
Ocean. 

Local self-government or home rule, in a country so large 
as Alaska, with a scattered nomadic population, intense 
local and sectional feeling, should not be given serious 
consideration until the population and developed resources 
of the country have increased to such an extent as to warrant 
the division of the territory into more limited areas, where 
the inhabitants of each would have an opportunity to 
become acquainted, and where there would be some degree 
of similarity of interests. Before such an experiment, an 
earnest effort should be made to secure larger percentage 
of permanent residents and endeavor to attach some of 
the population to the soil. 

My own judgment is that the only way properly to develop 
Alaska for' the benefit of everybody in it, is to bring the 
Territory under the management of one bureau and depart- 
ment in 'Washington, so that all the officials in the Govern- 
ment shall have to report to one head, and so also that the 
interests of the entire Territory shall be centered in one 
responsible bureau chief in Washington, whose business it 
shall be through his Department chief to present to Congress 
the needs of the Territory, to follow legislation, and to attend 
to everything at the National Capital in which the people of 
the Territory are interested. It is not necessary that the 
delegate shall be dispensed with, but an executive office, 
with records, with information and constantly active, can 



284 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

greatly contribute to the welfare of a territory for which it 
is responsible when located at the National Capital, and 
when understood to have the proper authority and responsi- 
bility. 

Certain general laws, like the mining laws, the forestry 
laws, the customs laws and the land laws should be passed 
by Congress and perhaps executed by national officers, 
but this would leave a wide domain for domestic legislation 
which it seems to me ought to be intrusted to some local 
authority on the ground and having a knowledge of local 
needs. Of course if the Territory were so settled with a 
permanent population more or less equally distributed 
through its extent, such legislative power might be entrusted 
to an elected legislature, but for the reasons I have given, it 
seems to me that it would be much wiser to entrust this local 
legislative power to a commission of five or more members, 
appointed by the President, to act with the Governor in 
the discharge of such legislative functions. It seems wise 
not to confer legislative functions on the Governor alone, 
but to assist him in its exercise by the addition of competent 
persons who will live in the Territory, familiarize themselves 
with its local needs and bring to the attention of Congress 
and the Executive such additional legislation as may from 
time to time be wise. 

It will be observed that this is practically the govern- 
ment which was given to the Philippine Islands, although 
the Commission there had more legislative authority than 
it would be wise or necessary to give to the Alaskan Com- 
mission. Objection will be made on the ground that this 
is treating the people of Alaska, who are generally free-born 
American citizens, as if the Territory were a dependency 
of persons unfit to exercise the power of self-government. 
I can not deny that the conditions in Alaska are such as 
in my judgment to prevent the extension of local self-govern- 
ment safely to that Territory. It is not because of the 
character of the people if they were permanent residents and 
sufficient in number and sufficiently distributed to warrant 



AND STATE PAPERS 285 

the establishment of a representative government, but the 
conditions that exist are such as to put them for the time 
being in a position justifying a similar treatment to that 
of the Philippines. Indeed it would be a great deal better 
government than at present, because it would be vesting 
power in a local authority familiar with local needs, and 
to-day no such power exists. In other words, it would be a 
great advance over the present conditions. I don't know 
that Congress will agree with me in this view, but a personal 
experience in the practical operation of such a system of 
government for the benefit of the territory governed leads 
me to feel justified in making such a recommendation. 
The Territory will develop much more rapidly and the boon of 
self-government will come much more quickly under such 
a system than as the government is being carried on at present. 

The future of Alaska is big with prosperity and great 
productiveness, but it needs intelligent legislation to develop 
it quickly and in the right way; and I know no better method 
of securing such a result than by a properly constituted 
Commission. There is an opportunity for Congress to aid 
in the construction of certain railroads that will largely 
develop the Territory, and which private enterprise is not 
able or willing to undertake unless it receives some sort of 
guaranty from the Government. That I would unhesita- 
tingly recommend, because Alaska is a territory in which 
private capital can not be expected to build the first railroads. 

I am especially interested in Alaska because her develop- 
ment has been delayed by a lack of appropriate legislation 
and because I know something of the needs of a land so far 
distant. Of course the law-making power of the Commission 
should be subject to the approval of the head of the depart- 
ment at Washington responsible for the government of 
Alaska, just as is provided now by the law governing the 
Philippines. 

Since I last visited the Coast, I am glad to say that the Phil- 
ippines have had extended to them in the matter of a tariff 
law a measure of justice, which ought to have been adopted 



286 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

nine years ago. If it had been adopted, the city of Seattle, 
the city of San Francisco, and the whole Pacific Coast would 
have profited by its enactment. Free trade with the Philip- 
pines as now established between the Islands and this 
country will develop an exchange of business between the 
two countries which will be greatly to the advantage of both. 
Trade in the Philippines has long had one trend, and it will 
take some time, perhaps two or three years, to effect a change, 
even now that the law is passed; but a familiarity with the 
situation in the Islands makes me confident that the Pacific 
Coast will come to value more and more highly the trade 
from the Philippines Avhich will fall to it. There are many 
industries in the Philippines the products of which will sell 
well in the United States now that the tariff is lifted from 
them, and with similar relief from burden in entering the 
Philippines, American manufactures will have a far wider 
sale in those distant islands on the Pacific. 

The Panama Canal will be completed on or before the first 
of January, 1915, and with its completion the trade between 
the Eastern and Western coasts of this country will be revolu- 
tionized, for the carriage of heavy bulk merchandise between 
the Pacific and the Atlantic Coast is almost certain to be by 
water. This will reduce the transcontinental business to the 
carriage of the more valuable classes of merchandise, which 
can profitably pay a higher rate of transportation. More 
than this, it will change the avenues of international trade, 
will bring the eastern coast of America closely in touch 
with the western coast of South America, and will greatly 
facilitate the direct transportation from the west coast of 
America to European ports. 

China is waking up. She is approaching a period of 
development that can not but increase her trade and aug- 
ment her importance as customer and as a trader with this 
country, while Japan and all the other Oriental countries 
are moving onward with giant steps in the commercial 
competition of the world. The many prophecies that have 
been made that in the next half century the commercial 



AND STATE PAPERS 287 

progress of the world is to he seen more decidedly in the 
Pacific than anywhere else are certainly well founded; and 
under those conditions it behooves us as Americans interested 
in pushing her trade into every quarter of the globe to take 
steps to repair a condition that exists in respect to our mer- 
chant marine that is humiliating to our national pride and 
most burdensome to us in competition with other nations 
in obtaining international trade. 

We maintain a protective tariff to encourage our manu- 
facturing, farming, and mining industries at home and 
within our jurisdiction, but when we assume to enter into 
competition upon the high seas in trade between international 
ports, our jurisdiction to control that trade so far as the 
vessels of other nations are concerned, of course ceases, and 
the question which we have to meet is how with the greater 
wages that we pay, with the more stringent laws we enact 
for the protection of our sailors, and with the protective 
system making a difference in the price between the neces- 
saries to be used in the maintenance of a merchant marine, 
we shall enable that merchant marine to compete with the 
marine of the rest of the world. 

This is not the only question either, for it will be found 
on an examination of the methods pursued in other countries 
with respect to their merehanl marines, that there is now 
extended by way of subsidies by the various governments 
to their respective ships, upward of $35,000,000, and this 
offers another means by which in the competition the 
American merchant ship is driven out of business and finds 
it utterly impossible to bid against its foreign competitors. 
Not only this, but so inadequate is the American merchant 
marine to-day that in seeking auxiliary ships with which 
to make our navy an instrument of offense or defense, or 
indeed in sending it around the world as a fleet, we have 
to call on vessels sailing under a foreign flag to carry the 
coal and to supply the other needs of such a journey. Were 
we compelled to go into a war to-day, our merchant marine 
lacks altogether a sufficient tonnage of auxiliary unarmed 



288 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ships absolutely necessary to the proper operation of the 
navy, and were a war to come on we should have to purchase 
such vessels from foreign countries, and this might under 
the laws governing neutrals be most difficult. 

The trade between the eastern ports of the United States 
and South America is a most valuable trade, and now equals 
something like $250,000,000; but European nations, appreci- 
ating the growing character of this trade, have by subsidies 
and other means of encouragement so increased the sailings 
of large and well-equipped vessels from Europe to the ports 
of South America as visibly to affect the proportion of trade 
which is coming to the United States by the very limited 
service of a direct character between New York and South 
American ports. 

I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American 
shipping marine on the Pacific Coast and the growing power 
for commercial purposes in this regard of the Empire of 
Japan. Japan is one of the most active and generous coun- 
tries in the matter of subsidies to its merchant marine that 
we have, and the effect is only too visible in an examination 
of the statistics. 

For this reason, it seems to me that there is no subject 
to which Congress can better devote its attention in the 
coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encour- 
age our merchant marine in such a way as to establish 
American lines directly between New York and eastern 
ports and South American ports, and between our Pacific 
Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines. We earn a 
profit from our foreign mails of from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 
a year. The application of that amount would be quite 
sufficient to put on a satisfactory basis two or three Oriental 
lines and several lines from the East to South America. 
Of course, we are familiar with the argument that this 
would be contributing to private companies out of the 
treasury of the United States; but we are contributing in 
various ways on similar principles in effect, both by our 
protective tariff law, by our river and harbor bills, and 



AND STATE PAPERS 289 

by our reclamation service. We are not putting money in 
the pockets of ship owners, but we are giving them money 
with which they can compete for a reasonable profit only 
with the merchant marine of the world. 

From my observation I think the country is ready now 
to try such a law and to witness its effect in a compara- 
tively small way upon the foreign trade of the United States. 
If it is successful, experience will show how the policy can 
best be expanded and enlarged and the American commercial 
flag be made to wave upon the seas as it did before our Civil 
War. It is true that our foreign trade is great and increas- 
ing, and this without the merchant marine, but it is also 
true that the ownership of a merchant marine greatly enhances 
the opportunities for the merchants of the country having 
such a merchant marine. This is shown by consular reports 
and a reference to statistics in an indisputable way. 

There is no part of the country more interested in the 
development of this policy than Seattle, Washington and 
the whole Pacific Coast. With the enormous energy and 
potential force that you have developed in your community 
here for trade and business expansion, it cannot have es- 
caped the foresight of your business captains that the devel- 
opment of a merchant marine means the growth of Seattle 
into a port of such importance that hardly the lively imagin- 

on of her ambitious citizens can compass, 
ati 



XXXI 
ADDRESS AT THE ARMORY, TACOMA, WASH. 

(OCTOBER 1, 1909) 

Mr. McCormick, Mr. Mayor, Ladies- and Gentlemen: 

AFTER what your Mayor has said I don't know exactly 
what I ought to say. It is a good deal of a burden to 
bear to start off with that kind of an introduction. It 
invites a hope that I am sorry to say you will hardly be able 
to realize: but I am yen- glad to meet a Tacoma audience 
again. My recollection is that I stole into your town and 
ran around with a friend on my way to Portland two years 
ago; that I returned, and then met an audience in the Park; 
and that I had the honor then of being introduced by your 
Congressman, Mr. Cushman — "Old Cush," as we called 
him affectionately in Washington. It saddens my visit 
to flunk that he is no more; that he has gone from you and 
has left to you but a sweet and fragrant memory. It was 
my good fortune to come into contact with him early in my 
service as Secretary of War, and to know how he cherished his 
dear old home of Tacoma. I think I told you when I was 
here two years ago that he wore out the steps of the War 
Department trying to get me to recommend that a goyernment 
reservation should be turned oyer to the city as a park. He 
said, "Mr. Secretary, if you will only do this my people of 
Tacoma will put a monument in that Park that can be seen 
way down Puget Sound"; and I said to him, "Why, Cush, 
old man, you would make a good deal better monument than 
I would, and what I will do is to get that park and then they 
will put up a monument to you." Of course, those things 
were said in kindly jest, but I am here to suggest to the people 
of Tacoma that they could not honor a more loving son — 

290 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 291 

one who had served them better — than by putting up a 
monument to Francis Cushman in Wright's Park. First, 
he was an honest man; second, he was a courageous man; 
third, he was a man of intellect; fourth, he had a genial, 
kindly heart; and, fifth, he had that delicious flavor of 
humor that made everybody love to be with him and to come 
under its influence. There was something about Cushman 
that always reminded me of Lincoln. He was not a hand- 
some man — neither was Lincoln — but it is impossible to 
think of either without an admiration for something about 
his physical make-up that appealed to you as an evidence of 
his straight-forward simplicity and love of his fellow-men. 
His humor, flashes of which have outlasted his life in Wash- 
ington, comes back every time I think of him. He was going 
into the tariff debate, and he had known that his committee 
had voted for a dollar on lumber, and he wanted to keep it 
up to $2, but he was a party man; lie believed in party; he 
believed that the maintenance of the solidarity of the Repub- 
lican party on (he whole was more important than his opinion 
on a particular issue, and so he was marching up to meet 
that particular thing he expected to be done, lumber carried 
from $2 to $1, but when he rose in that House, he said he 
wasn't hastening the moment because he felt a little bit like 
that gentleman who in the early days had established a 
small ranch, and then increased his herd of cattle by a 
judicious selection from hi- neighbors' herds until they came 
to the conclusion that it was necessary for him to swing from 
a limb; and when they asked him to come, he said hs was 
coming - that he wasn't hurrying because he said that while 
it was an event in which he had very considerable interest, 
he could not describe his attitude as one of enthusiasm. 

I remember another of his witticisms. There was a 
gentleman in office in Washington whom " Cush" didn't think 
to be very popular in the West, and so at a Gridiron dinner, 
at which' the President was present, after it was announced 
that this gentleman was about to retire. "Cush" expressed 
proper regret at his going, but said that he was bound to 



292 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

admit that when news of that retirement came to the West 
there would not be a dry throat west of the Missouri River. 
And so, my friends, Cushman went on through life — helping 
every one by his optimism — helping every one by his apt 
story — helping every one by his good fellowship, by his 
high standard, and by his wish to stand by his fellows. I am 
sorry, deeply sorry, that you have lost him as a Representa- 
tive. I am sorry, deeply sorry, that I have lost him as a 
friend. And I could not come into this community after 
having been introduced to you, as I was by him two years ago, 
and having been associated with him since in a close and 
intimate way, without paying this tribute to a man who 
loved his people, to a man who deserved well of his people, 
to a man who loved his country, and to a man who deserved 
well of his country. 

Now, my friends, I do not know what I am going to talk 
about exactly. I have delivered six or eight set speeches on 
subjects that I think ought to command the attention of 
Congress, and I have gotten rid of those. I felt about them 
very much as boys do about written examinations, and now 
I do not have anything to tie me down. I can talk to you 
about anything, if I can think of anything to say. There 
are one or two things I would like to argue with you, because 
perhaps you differ with me. It isn't of much use to talk 
with a man and to try to convince him of something he is 
already convinced of, to talk with him about something 
that he t^lieves even more strongly than you do; but there 
is a subject in which possibly in this audience I shall find a 
number who disagree with me. I talked to an audience over in 
Seattle about it, and that is the question as to what we ought 
to do about Alaska. You are interested in Alaska here. 
The State of Washington — Seattle and Tacoma are the 
nearest ports to that great possession of the United States. 
Now, in the first place, we have to admit that we haven't 
any reason to be proud of the governmental arrangements 
that we have made in Alaska. Unfortunately, there is right 
next to Alaska <» country that has been governed by our 



AND STATE PAPERS 293 

neighbors on the north, and that government compares 
most favorably with our government of Alaska, and we 
ought to do something about it. It is proposed that we should 
give to Alaska a territorial form of government, per- 
mitting the thirty or forty thousand people who are there, 
to elect a legislature, a governor and other territorial officers 
to exercise legislative power in that vast territory. Well, 
that sort of a proposition, of course, appeals to Americans 
because we Americans are generally in favor of popular 
government. We believe that popular government among 
intelligent people is better, because we believe that each set 
of men, call it class or otherwise, as you choose, men similarly 
situated are better able generally to decide through their 
representatives what is to their interest than if you leave it 
to somebody else; and hence we favor popular government 
and representative government, but that assumes certain 
conditions that make it possible for the people to act 
intelligently. 

Now, what is the condition in Alaska? They have 35,000 
or 40,000 people there, but they are a nomadic people. 
There are very few permanent residents attached to the soil. 
There are miners, moving from one mining camp to another. 
There are saloon-keepers, for that seems to be a very import- 
ant element in that territory, who change from one place to 
another, and they are not so situated with reference to the 
permanent attachment to the soil, or with reference to a 
distribution through the entire territory, which is enormous, 
reaching from British Columbia to the Arctic Ocean — 
they are not so situated that they could provide a government 
of people having similar interests and reaching similar con- 
clusions with reference to the whole territory. They are 
situated in one corner, or they are so scattered that it seems 
most unwise to me to attempt to make out of so small a 
community an organized territory and a territorial govern- 
ment. But you say, "If you don't do that, what are you 
going to do ? They ought to have some authority in the 
territory that has power to legislate upon domestic matters. 



294 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The}' ought to have some authority in the territory exercised 
by people who are on the ground and who understand the 
local needs." I agree to that. I think that is one of the 
things that has been most lacking. We have, of course, a 
commission of army officers there to build roads. We have 
some judges up there who exercise judicial jurisdiction and 
some sort of other jurisdiction. We have collectors of 
internal revenue, and we have a Governor, who has some 
authority, chiefly of making recommendations to Congress; 
and then we have a Delegate who comes to Congress, who 
does not vote but who suggests methods by which improve- 
ments can be made. But there is nobody to do anything 
in the sense of acting on the ground and making laws and 
regulations, which shall meet the needs of that territory. 

Now, how are you going to bring it about? If they are 
not in a condition justifying local self-government, as I 
believe they are not, there is only one other way by which 
they can do it, and that is the way we pursued in the Philip- 
pines. There President Mc Kin ley appointed a commission 
of five persons, who went out to the Philippines and lived 
there and familiarized themselves with the needs of the 
Islands. The commission had the power to legislate on 
all matters of domestic concern except customs, and here in 
Alaska we might well omit land laws, mining laws and possibly 
a number of other general statutes with reference to the juris- 
diction of courts. But if you give to the President the power 
to appoint five men who are to go there and settle and live 
there while they exercise their office, pay them good salaries 
— men who have no interest in the territory — and make it 
essential that they shall have no interest there of any sort, 
so that they will be entirely free from factionalism and 
sectionalism. Then you will get a body of men who will pass 
intelligently on measures needed to build up the territory 
and whose recommendations Congress will be glad to follow. 
Congress, on the other hand, will give to these men the 
power of local legislation — power to make certain things 
crimes, to make other things misdemeanours — power to 



AND STATE PAPERS 295 

levy internal taxation, power to make improvements; and 
then if you get such a commission, I doubt not that it will 
recommend to Congress to help railroads, because railroads 
can not be built by private enterprise in a country so far away 
and where so much risk attends the investment. There is 
no reason why we should not help Alaska, as we have in the 
Philippines helped the railroads there, by guaranteeing for 
a certain time the interest on railroad bonds. 

There is not a subject in which I take a deeper interest 
than I do in the development of Alaska, and I propose, if 
Congress will follow my recommendation, to do something 
in that territory thai shall make it move on. The ground 
has hardly been scratched there. Seward was laughed at 
for paving seven million dollars for that territory, and I 
think we have drawn from there already $200,000,000 of 
gold. The agricultural possibilities of the country, the 
forests and the timber that are there, are not fully understood. 
We do know thai there is a wealth of coal that can be mined 
and thai will make coal cheaper along the whole Pacific 
Coast. It is worth while, therefore, for us to take it up as 
a business matter. These things are to be treated from a 
common sense standpoint, not from a purely sentimental 
one, and if you believe in your hearts, as I believe in mine, 
that for ten years at leasl we will give a belter government 
there by sending up live able, honest, disinterested men to 
pass laws, to recommend legislation to Congress, and to do 
the things thai are needed to lead that territory on to proper 
development — if you believe it in your heart, then you ought 
to say so, and you ought not to be led aside by what seems 
to be for the moment a popular cry. 

I know thai the newspapers of Alaska have forwarded a 
telegram, and I think it got into the papers, in which they 
recommend that they have a territorial legislature. Now, 
I am not going to impugn their motives. It is not necessary. 
I do think that their situation is such that they are much more 
likely to look upon themselves as able to legislate than per- 
haps men who look at it from a standpoint of indifference 



296 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and who understand the nomadic or moving character of 
the population. You would hardly arrange for a mining 
camp to be a territory. It is agricultural soil and attach- 
ment to the ground itself that makes a permanent population 
and that is safe to legislate and maintain a popular 
government. 

Now, I have said as much on that subject as I intend to 
say, except this, that there are a great many people who 
agree with me and I think there are a majority in 
Congress who believe that the territory is not in a condition 
to justify an organized territorial government. Those who 
are in favor, intensely in favor of developing Alaska, 
will perceive that my proposition is much more likely 
to receive support, and that, even if they really believe that 
they ought to have organized territorial government on a 
popular basis, it is a great deal better to get half a loaf than 
none at all, and it is better to take the proposition of a com- 
mission with legislative power than it is to have the present 
unsatisfactory condition of nobody able to legislate there 
and nobody to develop the country. I am appealing, there- 
fore, to those who differ with me as to what would be wiser 
— to come over to my side, because on my side we are much 
more likely to get reform and remedial legislation with respect 
to Alaska, or to insist upon territorial organization by popular 
legislation ? 

I like to come out here, because I believe that here I find 
a people that sympathize deeply with me about the Philip- 
pines. The truth is, my political life began in the Philip- 
pines, and I rather feel as if I hailed from the gem of the 
Pacific than from any state of the Union, in a political sense. 
Certainly if it would not have been for them, I would not 
be President of the United States; and when I come to a 
people who are as interesting as you are, I like to talk with 
them because my sympathy and my hopes are far out in the 
Pacific from a personal standpoint. 

I am convinced that with the adoption in this last tariff 
bill of free-trade with the Philippines, the people of Tacoma, 



AND STATE PAPERS 297 

Seattle and San Francisco are going to live to see the day 
when they will thank God for the passage of that bill. I 
came over from Seattle this afternoon with a gentleman 
who congratulated me on the immediate effect of the 
bill, and said that if I wanted to I could use his certifica- 
tion that the trade has already begun. He said that he had 
just sold 100,000 barrels of flour to Manila, and that a great 
many oihcr things had been sold in the same direction. They 
are going to have a good many cloths, like pifia cloth, that 
will attract the attention of the ladies, and will lead them to 
buy it because it will come over at a cheap rale and because 
it is very pretty. I am not a judge of it myself. There are 
summer hats of a delightful texture — I know because I 
have worn Ihein — and there are many other thing's that the 
deft fingers of the Filipinos will make and export into this 
country. On the other hand, your manufactures, your flour 
and other tilings that yon raise will go oul to the Philippines, 
all because the duties have been taken off at both ends. 

I want to congratulate you on the fact that in the next 
fifty years the growth of this world's business is to be in the 
Pacific — and you are on the Pacific. You have one of the 
most magnificent harbors in the world. I do not need to 
convince you about that I believe, and here at the end of 
three or four great transcontinental lines you have an oppor- 
tunity to play an important pari in the Oriental trade of 
this country. 

Japjin is making giant strides to control the Oriental trade. 
She is trying to gel trade in China, jnst as we are. China 
is waking up from her dream of centuries past. She is 
developing and the more she develops the more we ought to 
like it. We ought not to proceed oh the theory that the 
proper kind of a country for us to deal with is a country 
that sells to us things at a cheaper price than they ought to 
bring, and that will give us a higher price than our things 
ought to bring. That is the way modern commerce is carried 
on. The great countries that deal with us profitably are 
the countries who know what they want and whose business 



298 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

is of such great extent that they are able to deal with us on a 
level, and that is the kind of development that we ought to 
hope for China. With China growing, with Japan growing, 
with the Philippines growing, and you here at the end of two 
or three transcontinental lines, with a harbor so magnificent 
as this is, I do not know what your future is going to be. 
It is full of hope and if I did not know that you are just as 
full of hope as you ought to be, I would emphasize it. 

Hut, that trade is to be carried in what ? It is to be carried 
in ships. Now, whose ships ought it to be carried in ? [Cries 
of "ours".] Yes, you are right — you ought to go to the 
head. And yet we haven't a ship — well, you have; there 
is the Minnesota, and I am not going to cross the bridge 
that carried me over; it is a comfortable ship and it took me 
across the ocean, but it is the one ship you have here with 
an American flag. There are some in the Pacific Mail in 
San Francisco. 

If the bill introduced in Congress by one of your Congress- 
men from Washington, Mr. Humphrey, passes, offering 
a subsidy, we shall have a number of lines to the Orient 
and several lines between New York and the southeastern 
coast of South America, where there is another trade we 
are likely to lose because Europe is putting on many fast 
lines running to that part of the world. 

This bill is an experiment. We are earning by our 
foreign mail upward of six or eight million dollars a year 
profit, that is, the stamps that we sell and our part of the 
money that is collected for foreign mail exceed our expendi- 
tures from six to eight million dollars. And all this bill 
proposes is that that sum shall be invested in subsidies to be 
paid to a number of lines to the Orient and to several lines 
to South America, so that we may try it out and see how 
it will work. Now, I say that it is wise to do that. There 
are gentlemen who will oppose it, and oppose it consistently, 
because they say it is paying money out of the public treasury 
into the pockets of private individuals. It is, but it is not 
paying it for them to keep it there. It is paying it for them 



AND STATE PAPERS 299 

to run ships out of which they can make no profit at all unless 
they get it out of what we pay to them; in other words, out 
of what is paid to them they will have to pay a large propor- 
tion in order to be able to compete with the ships of other 
nations, so that it is not paying the subsidy into their pockets 
for nothing. It is paying something into their pockets for 
them to do something which will inure to the benefit of the 
country. 

Mr. Thomas B. Reed used to express his opinion of men 
who opposed what he regarded as beneficial legislation 
because somebody was likely to profit by it. " Oh, yes," he 
said, "he is one of those men opposed to the bill because a 
man might make $1.50." Now, that spirit I deprecate. 
We have proceeded to invest money in our rivers and har- 
bors so that steamboats could run on them. Well, that 
money came out of your pocket and mine and through other 
sources of taxation to put water into the stream so that the 
steamboats should run on it. The man who runs the steam- 
boat on the water gets profit out of it. Are not we helping 
him by direct contribution to do his business? So it is with 
the protective tariff. We put up a tariff for the purpose 
of increasing prices and making everybody contribute a 
little bit in order to have our industries diversified. This 
subsidy is exactly on the same principle. We cannot protect 
it by the tariff because the competition is by foreign vessels 
which we can not control, and the only thing we can do is to 
pay the money directly instead of making a protective tariff. 

People run away from the name subsidy. It is a sub- 
sidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose 
of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that 
the trade of the whole country may be benefited thereby, and 
the men running the ship will of course make a reasonable 
profit. It is difficult for anybody with any amount of money 
to run a vessel if he be an American and subject to American 
laws and make a profit. He can not do it; and we are trying 
to help him out with this subsidy so that he may make 
a reasonable profit. We are not making him a millionaire 



300 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

cither. When he gets the subsidy he has to work hard to 
earn it and to make a reasonably small profit. We are 
gradually convincing those through the Middle West of the 
mistake of their opposition and the wisdom of paying such 
subsidies for the purpose of increasing our merchant marine. 

It is said we have a great foreign trade at any rate. It is 
increasing every year, so what is the need of this. Let 
the rest of the world do our carrying business. If they will 
do it at a cheap rate, let's get it and save our money. The 
difficulty about that is that when you control the merchant 
marine, you do control trade. It is seen in South America. 
The facility with which steamer lines can be established 
between Europe and the ports of South America has led 
to their getting more and more proportionately of the trade 
between the eastern ports and South America, and so it is 
everywhere. When you control the merchant marine you 
control the avenues of trade, and you are able to divert it in 
one direction or another; therefore, it is a great instrument 
to help us increase our international trade. 

I ought to say about that trade that one of our troubles is 
that we are altogether too conceited. We feel, for instance, 
that we have so much business here that if they do not like 
the patterns which we make, if they do not like the looms 
upon which our textile fabrics are made, they need not take 
them, and the consequence is we lose the trade. We need 
our foreign trade, and our merchants have to learn that they 
must make the same effort with the foreign trade as with 
the domestic trade. This is the course which has been 
followed by great companies that have made foreign com- 
merce a success. But I merely note in passing that which 
has been made most apparent to those of us who have lived 
in the Orient — that the German and Swiss and Japanese 
manufacturers consult with the utmost attention the desires 
of the Oriental, and it is just as well that we should. If we 
want to sell something, we had better make it attractive to 
the men who wish to buy it. 

Now, something which ought to appeal to all of us is that 



AND STATE PAPERS 301 

unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon 
for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective. 
We haven't tonnage enough to-day in our foreign trade to 
enable us to give to the navy the auxiliary ships that will 
be necessary to carry ammunition, coal and those other 
things that are necessary in order to fit the sailors and main- 
tain the ships. Therefore, we ought to exert ourselves to 
produce that tonnage so when the time comes that the life 
of the nation is in danger and we need the navy to protect 
us against invasion or against attack, we should have the 
auxiliary under our own flag in order to make the operations 
of the navy effective. 

I have talked a good deal longer than I have had a right. 
I have become interested in these subjects, and have gotten 
into a perspiration over them, but I believe thoroughly what I 
have said to you, and I hope when you go home and think it 
over, you will come over to my side; at any rate, if you do not, 
that you will believe I have been in earnest in what I have 
said. 

I thank you sincerely for your attention. I hope your 
community will go on increasing in wealth and in intel- 
ligence, if that is possible. 



XXXII 
ADDRESS AT THE ARMORY, PORTLAND, ORE. 

(OCTOBER 2, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor; Ladies and Gentlemen; Citizens of Portland: 

I WISH to extend to your distinguished Mayor and your 
people of this beautiful city my heartfelt acknowledg- 
ment of the cordial reception which I have had at your hands 
since reaching your city this morning. I wish to thank the 
veterans of the Grand Army for the honor which they have 
done me to-night in escorting me to this hall. I appreciate 
the motive of these men who helped preserve the Union, 
who recognize in me the Commander-in-chief, under the 
Constitution, of that country which they did so much to 
preserve and save. 

I am going to-night, my friends, if my voice holds out, 
and your patience holds out, to take a little review of the 
present administration, of what it has done, and of what it 
has agreed to do. In the first place the party of the adminis- 
tration agreed to revise the tariff, and in my judgment, that 
ao-reement involved a revision downward, because, under 
the theory of the protective tariff after a ten years' trial, the 
effect of competition ought to have made rates of tariff less 
necessary generally than they were ten years ago. Now the 
tariff bill which was passed was, in my judgment, a sub- 
stantial revision downward, but it was not, in certain impor- 
tant respects, a compliance with the terms in respect to the 
woolen schedule, and perhaps there might be some other 
things mentioned of that character, but the truth was, that 
the States that were interested in the manufacture of woolens 
and the states that were interested in the preservation of the 
woolen industry united and prevented a change of that tariff, 

302 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 303 

which had been reached by agreement after very difficult 
negotiation. 

Now, the question was whether, because that bill did not, 
in all respects, comply with the terms of the party, members 
of the House and of the Senate should decline to vote for it, 
and the President should decline to sign it. After thinking 
the matter over, I became convinced that it was my highest 
duty to sign it, for the reason that while, in certain respects, 
it was defective, it was nevertheless the best tariff bill which 
the Republican party had ever offered to the people, and it 
was necessary that a tariff bill should be passed, in order that 
the prosperity which we were awaiting should come. As 
long as there remained unsettled the important question 
of the tariff, business would not resume with the prosperity 
and the energy and the enterprise which it would have when 
business conditions became settled. 

Again, we are engaged in running a government by party, 
and because some of us are disappointed with respect to 
some things that the party does not do, if we think that party 
considerations are of higher importance, if we think that in 
order to accomplish anything, we must have solidarity of 
party, then we may well weigh our personal predilections 
with reference to some issues, in order that we may maintain 
a strong party front and accomplish affirmatively the steps 
that we believe we ought to accomplish. It is easy enough 
to break up a party; it is easy enough to prevent legislation, 
but when you are charged with the responsibility before the 
country of carrying legislation, then you must have a party 
behind you. 

Now, that tariff bill not only affected the tariff of the 
United States, but it also provided an additional means of 
taxation in order to meet the deficit which was promised, 
unless some other method of taxation was added to that of the 
customs and the then existing internal revenue. At first it 
was proposed to have an inheritance tax, and I recommended 
that, but the Senate found protests from all the States that 
they had occupied that field of taxation, and that they 



304 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

desired the United States to keep off that reservation. Accord- 
ingly, the question arose, What should we do? 

It was proposed in the Senate to pass an income tax laAv, 
to pass a law that had been declared by the Supreme Court 
of the United States to be unconstitutional. That court 
had held that an income tax was a direct tax, and that a 
direct tax, under the Constitution must be levied in accord- 
ance with the population of states. Nevertheless there was 
a majority in the Senate of Democrats and Republicans in 
favor of passing that bill unless some substitute could be 
devised which would satisfy the Republicans who were 
in favor of an income tax, and not involve the passage of a 
bill which had been declared to be unconstitutional. Accord- 
ingly it was proposed to have what is now known as the 
corporation tax, and also to pass an income tax amendment 
to the Constitution; that is, to propose to the States to 
amend the Constitution by providing that an income tax 
might be levied without apportionment as to population 
between the States. And, accordingly, by almost the 
unanimous vote of both Houses that amendment has been 
proposed to the people of the United States, and the cor- 
poration tax was passed in the tariff bill. 

I propose, first, to allude to the income tax amendment, 
which may come up at any time in the legislature of any of 
the States. I sincerely hope that when it does come up it 
will pass in each State, and the reason why I hope so is that 
I think that such a power in times of need and disaster is 
necessary for the central government to maintain itself, and 
I would not take from the central government a power 
which in war is necessary to save the government. 

We had an experience in the Civil War in respect to that 
matter. An income tax was levied, and it was supposed, 
by reason of judicial decision at that time, that the income 
tax was constitutional, but since that time, as you know, by 
a late decision — I say late; in 1896 or 1897 — it was held 
to be unconstitutional. I am not in favor of levying an 
income tax such as that which was provided in the bill, in 



AND STATE PAPERS 305 

times of peace. I am not in favor of it because I think it 
will prove to be too inquisitorial as to individuals, and I think 
it will be found also that it puts a premium on perjury, so 
that the gentlemen whom you are especially after, when you 
levy an income tax, will escape, and only those who are too 
conscientious will pay more than their share. In times of 
dire need it is necessary that we should use such a tax, 
objectionable as it is in certain of its features, and, therefore, 
I hope it will pass the States. 

Now, what is the corporation tax ? That is a species of 
income tax which the Supreme Court has said was constitu- 
tional. It proposes to levy one per cent, on the dividends of 
all corporations as an excise tax, upon the business which 
they do as corporations. If I understand the decisions of 
the Supreme Court, that is held not to be a violation of the 
Constitution, because it is not a direct tax, but it is only 
a tax on business; it is an excise tax. That brings under 
Federal control in a sense and under Federal supervision 
in a sense all corporations. The tax is not levied on incomes 
of corporations less than $5,000, but all corporations for 
gain are required to file returns which show their gross 
receipts, their expenses, their debts, bonded or othenyise, 
and certain other general facts which will show their con- 
dition and enable the tax-gatherer to assess the proper 
taxation. 

If the Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall have 
reason to believe by evidence that those returns are inaccurate 
in any case, then he may send an agent who shall examine 
the corporate officers and the corporate books and such other 
witnesses as may be necessary to determine what the actual 
condition of the corporation in question is. 

Now, that is a qualified publicity provision with respect 
to all corporations of the country, and I think it is an excel- 
lent incidental benefit of the corporation tax. It is said 
it is not fair, because on one side of the street is a partnership 
that is not a corporation, doing exactly the same business 
that the corporation is doing on the other side of the street. 



306 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

But the corporation on the other side of the street has certain 
advantages in doing its business which are not enjoyed by the 
partnership. One advantage, and a very decided one, is that 
the partners are liable in all their estate for the debts of the 
partnership, whereas the share-holders in the corporation 
are liable only to the amount of their stock, or, under some 
State constitutions, to double that. Again, the corporation 
lives forever; a partnership dies with the death of one of the 
partners. Other advantages may occur to you, but these 
two are sufficient to make a distinction. If the corporation 
does not choose to continue, and they can divide back again 
into a partnership, they can do so, and nobody will charge 
them a tax, but as long as they enjoy the privilege of doing 
business as a corporation, and carry on their business with 
that advantage, then the Federal Government has a right to 
levy, and it seems to me it is a wise tax for the Government 
to levy. 

It is not a heavy tax; one per cent. — that is one per cent, 
on a year's income. If you own ten shares of $100 each, 
that is $1,000, and you receive six per cent.; that would be 
$60, and one per cent, on that would be sixty cents. It is 
not a very heavy tax, and I doubt if it will reduce the dividend 
in the case of any corporation, because a well regulated cor- 
poration ordinarily does not declare all of its earnings into 
the dividends. But whether it does or not, I do not mean 
to say that it is not a tax, but it is not heavy. It will raise 
about $26,000,000 or $30,000,000, and that will make up 
the deficit as it is calculated between the expenditures of 
the Government and the amount raised from the customs 
and the internal revenue. 

Another provision of the tariff law is the section which 
declared free trade between the Philippines and the United 
States, and that, my friends, you are decidedly more interested 
in from the standpoint of your pocket than I am, because, 
unless I am no prophet at all, unless I know nothing of the 
Philippine Islands, and am no judge of the business that is 
to grow out of our association in free trade with them, you 



AND STATE PAPERS 307 

are going to find a trade with the Philippines that will grow 
each year, that will become more and more valuable to you, 
that will become more and more valuable to the Philippine 
Islands; so that when the time comes that we can say to the 
Filipinos: "Here, we have educated you all up to self- 
government, and you are at liberty to go and become a 
separate nation, and cut off our business associations and 
have a tariff between us," you will find, in my judgment, 
that neither the Filipinos on the one side, nor we on the 
other will desire that severance. 

The corporation tax, I have said, gives some Federal 
supervision over corporations. If you were to look into the 
statistics of the corporations and try to find out how many 
there are in this country and what business they are doing 
and what earnings they are having and what their expenses 
are, I venture to think you would be in a mass of statistics 
in which you would lose yourselves. The fact is, there are 
at present no means of telling what our corporations are 
doing. In some States they are required to make reports, 
and in others not. All the difficulties that we have had in 
respect to the standards of business, in respect to monopolies, 
in respect to those things that Theodore Roosevelt denounced, 
and intended to bring about legislation which should stop 
— all those things have arisen out of corporations and the 
privileges which corporations have been given. Now, I 
am not here to denounce corporations. We could not get 
along without corporations — they are a necessary instru- 
ment in the business of this country, and in its prosperity; 
but as we give them privileges, as we give them power, so 
they must recognize the responsibility with which they 
exercise that power, and we must have the means of com- 
pelling them to recognize that responsibility and to keep 
within the law. 

One of the things that enables us to keep them within the 
law is to know what they are doing, for one of the things that a 
corporation does, if you do not supervise and look closely, is 
to hide even thing behind it, and this corporation tax is a step 



308 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and a long step toward Federal investigation and supervision 
— I had almost said control — of all corporations. Of course, 
corporations within the State are State corporations, but 
they generally do a large interstate business, and after we 
have established this only modified and qualified supervision 
of all corporations, we can begin to classify and make more 
acute and more direct and more thorough our investigation 
of those particular corporations that we are after. I think, 
therefore, that this administration has something already 
to point to in its accomplishment; that it has passed the 
tariff bill, that it has put free trade between the United 
States and the Philippines, and that it has taken a long step 
toward the proper control of the corporations in the passage 
of the corporation tax law. 

Another thing which the tariff bill has done, which has 
not been commented on particularly, is the provision called 
the maximum and minimum clause. The European nations 
have not been slow in levying tariffs themselves. And they 
have at times discriminated against us in favor of some 
other country with which they had friendly relations. They 
have also at times imposed such restrictions, hardly in good 
faith, upon the importation of our food-stuffs, our lard, our 
hogs, our beef and other food products, which we send over 
there, as really to exclude us from their markets; and they 
have done it in such a way that it was difficult for us to 
retaliate or to secure an amelioration of the condition of 
exclusion. 

Now, this maximum and minimum provision leaves to 
the President to say whether any country with which we 
have business exercises the power of unduly discriminating 
against American products, and if it does not, then they 
enjoy the benefit of the minimum or normal rate of tariff 
in coming into this country with their products. But if it 
does, then the President shall refuse, if in his judgment their 
provisions are unduly discriminatory against this country 
and in favor of some other country. If that is found to be 
the case, then the President shall refuse to proclaim that the 



AND STATE PAPERS 309 

minimum tariff is in effect between us and that country, 
and therein- the maximum tariff of 25 per cent, of increase 
on everything goes into force. 

They have maximum and minimum tariffs in other coun- 
tries. Up to this time we have had none here, and every 
time we wanted to get even with some country in order to 
make that country come down and do justice to us, we have 
had to appeal to Congress to change the rates, and that was 
a very clumsy and generally an impossible thing to do, 
because Congress does not want to change one rate without 
changing a great many others. So this now transfers that 
power to the Executive, and enables the Executive to act 
without waiting for Congressional action. What is going 
to be its effect ? Not that we are going into a tariff war — 
not at all. I sincerely hope I shall not be called upon to 
exercise this power in a single case with respect to a single 
country, because the existence of the power is enough to 
prevent other countries from exercising that discrimination 
against us when they are advised that we have weapons of 
our own with which to retaliate. 

Another and most important provision of the tariff is that 
which enables the President to appoint or employ as many 
experts as he sees fit, consistent with the appropriation of 
$75,000, made to assist him in the execution of this maximum 
and minimum tariff clause, and also to assist him and other 
officers in the execution of the tariff law itself. I construe 
that to give me power to appoint a board, which I have 
appointed, which shall go into this tariff business thoroughly, 
which shall assist me with respect to a knowledge of foreign 
tariffs, whether they are unduly discriminatory, and if so, 
how; also to tell me of the operation of this tariff, to tell me 
the cost of things here, and the cost of things abroad, and to 
explain to me what these mysterious technical and business 
expressions in the tariff law mean. You hear a great deal 
about the tariff, but I would like to have you take up a tariff 
bill and go through it and then tell me what it means. 

Why, it is just like so much Choctaw to a man who is not 



310 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

an expert, and you take an expert on a part of it and he will 
find that a good deal of the rest that he is not an expert on is 
Choctaw. So what I wish to use this board for, and what I 
think under the law I have a right to use it for, is to make 
a glossary, to make an encyclopedia, to make what is com- 
parable to the United States Pharmacopoeia with respect to 
drugs, so that when a thing is completed and you take up the 
tariff law and come to something you do not understand, 
you can turn to that particular head in the encyclopedia and 
find out what it means, find out what the exact rate is ad 
valorem, find out where the article is produced, how many 
factories in this country, how many in other countries are 
producing it, and in what quantity; find out how it is pro- 
duced and what labor goes into it, and what the material 
costs here and abroad. When we have that, we shall have 
something upon which the Senate and the House and the 
people can act intelligently in respect to the revision of the 
tariff. 

Now, my friends, that is what has been done. What is 
there yet to do ? In the first place, this administration was 
elected on a platform that we proposed to carry out the poli- 
cies of Theodore Roosevelt, and we propose to keep that 
promise. Let us see what those policies were, speaking 
generally. I had occasion to say the other night that one 
little difficulty in carrying out those policies is that there are 
sometimes indefinite views as to what those policies are. 
There are some gentlemen, to use an expression that I have 
heard good Catholics use when they say that a man is even 
more Catholic than the Pope, who are more Rooseveltian 
than Mr. Roosevelt; and when they get a fad that Mr. 
Roosevelt may have heard of or may not have heard of, but 
which they are very much attached to, they like to gather it in 
as a part of the Roosevelt policies, and then if you do not 
subscribe to it, they denounce you as a traitor to the Roose- 
velt policies. 

Well, I was in Mr. Roosevelt's Cabinet four years and had 
some opportunity to understand what his policies were. 



AND STATE PAPERS 311 

The fact is, it fell to my lot to take the platform and discuss 
them, by his direction and with his sympathy, and therefore 
I think I know pretty generally what the Roosevelt policies 
are and what the platform of the Republican party meant 
when it pledged the party in the administration, if elected, 
to the carrying out of these policies. 

Mr. Roosevelt's chief policy was the determination to 
make the great corporations of this country obey the law, 
and those great corporations included two classes; the rail- 
roads and the great industrial corporations that did a large 
industrial business, and that had shown a tendency to try 
to monopolize that business and control prices and suppress 
competition. Mr. Roosevelt impressed upon the country, 
impressed upon Congress, and succeeded in inducing Con- 
gress to pass what was known as the Hepburn Rate Bill, and 
that was for the purpose of enabling the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission to fix rates when complaint was made 
as to their unreasonableness. Up to that time the only thing 
that the Commission could do was to say, "We believe this 
rate is unreasonable, and yon must fix another rate"; but 
thai law said: "No, when you find that the rate is unreason- 
able, then it is your business to go on and fix a reasonable 
rate." 

The law gave greater power to the Commission in other 
respects in detail, which I shall not dwell upon; but it con- 
tained a provision for a court of review. There was con- 
siderable discussion as to whether it ought to do so or not. 
In mv judgment it ought to have done so but it did not make 
any difference whether it did so or not; there would be a 
court of review of a decision of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. A court of review arises from a constitutional 
right of a railroad company or any other corporation owning 
property to obtain from its use a fair compensation; and, 
therefore, if the rates were confiscatory, to complain that it 
was property taken away from them without due process of 
law. Hence the situation was this — if you attempted by 
such a law to prevent recourse to the courts it would invalidate 



312 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the law; if you gave recourse to the courts, well and good; 
if you did not say anything about it, then there was recourse 
to the courts anyhow. So that the question really was a 
moot one. 

Now, the friends of the measure, many of them, dreaded 
the reference to the court because it was thought that this 
would delay action and prevent a rapid fixing of rates; and 
I am inclined to think from the reports of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission that this fear has proven to be well 
founded, and that the reference to the court, to the circuit 
courts and the court of appeals has delayed the remedies 
sought before the Interstate Commerce Commission, so 
that we ought to make some other provision in order to 
expedite those proceedings. 

For myself, I think it wise, after a consultation with the 
Commission, and after conferring with members of the Cab- 
inet, to recommend the establishment of one court of five 
members to whom all such appeals shall be referred. The 
fact that they have no other jurisdiction will make them 
experts; the fact that they sit as five men will enable them 
to dispose of the business rapidly, and then a case will be 
ended, except on an appeal to the Supreme Court. 

It is possible to go into one of some forty or fifty United 
States Courts all over the country and file your review or 
petition for review of the decision of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission. That produces conflict of decisions 
between a judge in Oregon and a judge in Massachusetts, 
and prevents that uniformity which is wanted, necessarily, 
to establish the proper rights and proper conduct t>f railroad 
companies. 

Then there are some other features which ought to be 
amended in the Hepburn Bill, which I shall not stop to call 
attention to, except to say in the party platform specifically 
was provided a promise that a law should be passed referring 
to some tribunal the question of how many bonds and how 
many shares of stock every interstate railway company may 
issue. In other words, a measure to prevent the watering of 



AND STATE PAPERS 313 

stock in the way in which it has gone on heretofore. That 
is important in a number of respects. It is important, of 
course, because when you water stock you only do it to 
deceive people and get them to pay more than the stock is 
worth. That is the only object of watering stock. Again, 
it is wrong because when you come to determine what a 
railroad company ought to earn, the owners of the railroad 
company turn at once to their stock and bond account and 
say: "Here are our shares of stock, and here are our bonds, 
and we ought to earn 5 per cent, on our bonds and 6 per cent, 
on our stock." If they water the stock and treble it beyond 
the actual property they have, you see that requires they 
should pay 18 per cent, of what was the real value of the 
railroad, rather than six. In other words, it affects, and 
affects most injuriously, the rights of the people in deter- 
mining what a reasonable compensation for a railroad shall 
be. Another thing is that if you pile up the stocks and bonds 
of a railroad company in such an amount that they can not 
even earn, no matter what they charge, their interest charge 
and the dividend on the stock, you are going to have that 
company in court in the hands of a receiver; you are going 
to prevent the expenditure of money needed to make it a good 
common carrier; yon arc going to interfere with its useful- 
ness in carrying the interstate trade. And there is where the 
Federal Government has a right to step in and say, "We 
propose to supervise your method of doing business, even 
if you are a State corporation only; you are doing an inter- 
state business, and we have a right to impose such a limita- 
tion on your method of doing that business as to secure 
etliciency and to secure the best kind of a railroad to carry 
goods and carry passengers." 

Then there is the anti-trust law. That law provides that 
any corporation or any combination or conspiracy in restraint 
of interstate trade shall be punished. It provides also that 
a monopoly shall be punished in interstate trade. It is a 
law most difficult to enforce. It is a law that by its terms 
is so wide that it includes other restraints of trade than 



314 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

those which arc with intent to monopolize or with intent to 
suppress competition. And if you read some of the decisions 
of the court by judges who do not appear to be friendly to 
the law, you will find that the very fact that it seems to cover 
a great many innocent arrangements which have a tendency 
to restrain interstate trade serves to make the law ridiculous. 
Now, what I recommend is that the law be so amended as to 
narrow it and confine it to combinations and conspiracies to 
suppress competition and to establish monopolies, and to 
leave out the denunciation of general restraints of trade. 
At common law general restraints of trade were not crimes, 
but men who entered into a contract that had a tendency 
to restrain trade were left to their own devices to secure its 
execution. The courts would not enforce it, but this goes 
farther and denounces as a crime all restraints by contracts 
and combinations and conspiracies in restraint of trade. 

Now, what is the effect of that ? One effect has been that 
the Supreme Court has held that a boycott levied against 
interstate trade is within that statute, and the labor unions 
and others have complained that that is an extension of a 
statute intended to suppress monopolies, trade monopolies 
and trade suppression and competition, to something which, 
while the letter of the statute permits it, was not intended by 
Congress, and was not the evil at which Congress aimed. 
I am inclined to think that that complaint is not without 
good foundation, and that we ought not to strain the statute 
to meet something which in its original conception it was not 
intended to remedy. I do not think there is any doubt 
about where I stand in respect to boycotts. If there is, I 
will just state what I think about them. They are illegal 
and they ought to be suppressed. 

I would never countenance a law which recognizes their 
legality, and I have not hesitated to say so for a good many 
years, but I do not think the way to suppress them is to take 
a Federal statute that was intended for another evil and make 
it apply to them, although the letter of the statute, and 
doubtless the judicial construction is right — I am not saying 



AND STATE PAPERS 315 

anything against that, I am not criticising the courts, but 
I am saying it has just happened that the letter of the statute 
covers their cases. If the statute is changed as I suggest, the 
letter of the statute will not cover their cases. The labor 
unions have said they would like to have a definite exception, 
saying this statute should not apply to labor unions. I 
would not consent to that at all. Labor unions have got 
to obey the laws like everybody else. And to introduce a 
special exception into a statute is to introduce class legislation, 
and that we do not approve in this country at all. But if by 
language which narrows this statute and reaches the evil 
which it was intended to reach, and reaches it better than 
by language that is broader and gets in a lot of innocent things 
in addition, we can make it more effective, and in making 
it more effective we leave out its application to boycotts, I 
have not the slightest objection. I think it is a good result. 

The anti-trust law is a hard law to enforce. It is a hard 
law to enforce because it is directed against something 
which the natural tendency in the spirit — - the intense spirit 
of competition — leads business men to. They wanted to 
avoid competition. They wanted to get ahead of their 
competitors, and soon they would proceed to unite with their 
competitors to drive everybody else out of the business, and 
they would control prices. Twenty or thirty years ago that 
seemed all right. But when we began to realize what the 
logical result of that was, and that if it went on we would 
soon have every business in the hands of a few men, and we 
would all be subject to the tyranny and the greed of those 
few men, we saw something had to be done — and this 
statute was passed. 

Now the statute has been most useful and I believe to-day 
that due to Theodore Roosevelt's efforts, and due to the 
crusade which he, like Peter the Hermit of old preached, 
there has been a new standard introduced into the business of 
the country; and that men consult statutes now, and consult 
lawyers to know what the lines of the law are. And it is 
our business to say to these gentlemen: "Thus far shalt 



316 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

thou go, and no farther" — to point out what that line is. 
It takes some time for a series of courts to make a decision 
which shall be plain to the business world. But we are 
going on with this trust law, and if we amend it as I suggest, 
we shall draw the lines closer and closer and enable men to 
know what is legitimate business on the one hand, and what 
is not on the other. 

Now, I have a great many friends in business, and have 
talked with them on this subject; and I am convinced a 
good many of them have a good deal to learn. 

A gentleman said to me, "We ought to have a trust law 
that shall permit us reasonably to regulate competition, so 
that we shall unite to prevent too much competition." Well, 
he didn't tell me just what kind of a law that was going to 
be; and he did not tell me, because he could not tell me. 

Again, you will hear a gentleman say that we ought not 
to have a provision for these restraints of trade to suppress 
competition which shall be unreasonable; and if they only 
reasonably restrain trade, and reasonably suppress com- 
petition, and you get a reasonable monopoly, then it is all 
right. Well, I don't know what a reasonable monopoly is. 
I do know what, at common law, a reasonable restraint of 
trade is; and I will explain that to you, if you have the 
patience to listen. I didn't expect to speak this long, but 
this is a subject most important, and if you will only bear 
with me I will get through. 

The term "restraint of trade," in English law — common 
law — our law — ■ referred to contracts by which a man 
agreed that he would not go into business — a certain kind 
of business — within a certain territory. Now, that contract 
was enforceable at common law if it was reasonable. If it 
was unreasonable it was not enforceable. Now, let us see 
how the courts arrived at the question whether a contract 
was reasonable or not. 

The exception as to reasonableness was introduced for 
the purpose of enabling a man who had made a good business, 
and acquired a good will in that business to dispose of that 



AND STATE PAPERS 317 

good will for a price, and to give it to some one else so that 
some one else might enjoy it. As, for instance, there is a 
merchant doing business in a certain line in the town of 
Portland, who wants to sell the good will which by twenty 
years' business he has built up and made valuable, and he 
goes to John Smith and says, "I want to go out of business; 
I will sell you all my plant, and I will sell you my good 
will." "Well," John Smith says, "what is the good 
will worth if you can sell it to me and then can go into 
business on the next corner? You will get back all your 
old customers." "Ah," says the man who is about to sell, 
"but, I will make a contract with you that I will not go into 
business in the city of Portland." 

Now, that is in restraint of trade. It is in restraint of the 
man's own trade. But the common law said that was 
reasonable; because the restraint is limited to that which 
the man is selling, and which the man is buying. It is what 
is necessary to protect the good will and make it property 
on the one hand and enable the man with a business to offer 
it as something worth having on the other. 

Now that is as far as the common law went in saying what 
was a reasonable restraint of trade. I need not say to you 
that is a narrow phase which in the great industrial business 
we are talking about plays no part whatever. But when we 
talk about reasonable suppression of competition and of a 
reasonably good trust, assuming that a trust intends to 
monopolize something, I don't see how you can make any 
distinction at all, or how a judge can sit on the bench and say, 
"This monopoly is all right, and that is not." I say all 
monopoly is wrong, and all combinations to suppress com- 
petition — legitimate competition — are wrong. The 
statute ought to say so, and ought to be enforced in that way. 
But restraints of trade which are intended to suppress com- 
petition are monopolies, and ought not to be regarded 
at all. 

We are going ahead to enforce that statute. As I say, it 
is a difficult statute to enforce; but I think the country is 



318 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

prepared now to accept that rule of law. I think the business 
community generally is looking with great care to see whether 
it is coming within the inhibition of the law; and I hope by 
urgent prosecution, and by a change in departments, so we 
can get more rapid action, the law may be more promptly 
enforced. 

There is another Roosevelt policy that we are pledged 
to, and that is the conservation of resources. I have 
not time to-night, and I will not detain you with a 
discussion in detail in respect to that, except to say it covers 
the treatment of our forests in such a way as to leave some- 
thing of those forests to posterity; to leave them so that 
they shall restrain and equalize the water supply. That 
means also such retention of control over the water powers 
of this country by the Government, over those water powers 
which in order to be used men must use the Government land, 
to retain such control over those that the Government may 
be able to supervise or regulate the rates charged for the 
power furnished — the electrical power furnished through 
those water powers. 

Then with reference to the reclamation of arid lands, it 
means the Government shall go on and by the use of money 
which the public lands bring to it, increase the productive 
area of land throughout this arid or semi-arid territory all 
over this western country. 

Again, it means with respect to coal lands, with respect to 
oil lands, and with respect to land which produces fertilizers, 
that there should be some provision by which the Govern- 
ment shall prevent the use of those lands by monopolies or 
syndicates which shall monopolize the use of the coal, the 
use of the fertilizer, or the use of the oil. 

Now, I do not mean to say those problems have all been 
worked out; but I do say we have gone so far in the matter 
of the waste of our resources as that men have seen it, and 
have been able to call a halt and impress the public mind 
with the necessity for action. And when Congress meets, I 
purpose to bring the matter before them and to ask Congress 



AND STATE PAPERS 319 

to amend the statutes so as to put more power in the hands of 
the Executive in respect to the disposition of this domain, 
with respect to imposing conditions on the use of the lands 
which the public gives to its citizens for settlement, in order 
that there may he a retention of power in respect to these 
resources, and that they may not be turned over to men who 
will not observe proper rules, so that on the whole we may not 
look back upon a field of disaster and waste of which we 
should not be proud in our history. 

Now, my friends, I have talked to you a great deal too long; 
but these are subjects I am interested in and you came in here 
and deliberately sat here and didn't move out, and you have 
had to pay the penalty. I thank you. 



XXXIII 

REMARKS TO THE PUPILS OF ST. MARY'S 
ACADEMY AT PORTLAND, OREGON 

(OCTOBER 3, 1909) 

Young Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls: 

YOU see I make some distinction in the matter of age. 
His Grace, the Archbishop, called you all his children, 
as you are, but I have to make a distinction. 

I am delighted to see you, and I thank the Archbishop, 
the clergy and the teachers for giving me an opportunity 
to come here this afternoon and to look into your faces. I 
understand that you are curious; that you are interested to 
see the President of the United States, to see what manner 
of man he is. I am very much interested to see you and to 
see in your faces and in your bearing the indications of the 
coming generation in Oregon. 

I was delighted to hear you sing "America." That is 
our song, although the air first came from Germany, and 
then was appropriated by England and now is appropriated 
by us; but it is a beautiful air, and it is the words that make 
the sentiment, and the sentiment of that song I am sure 
searches your hearts, as it does those of older people. 

Your church teaches that loyalty to God is the same as 
fidelity to country and reverence for constituted authority, 
and so do all good churches; and we can be very certain that 
those who are loyal to their church are certain to be loyal 
to the country; that those who are good Catholics are good 
citizens, just as those who are consistent members of every 
church find in the doing of their duty to the church everything 
that leads them on to the uplifting of humanity and the 
observation of all the obligations to government. 

320 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 321 

And now, my boys and girls, I am going to say good- 
bye. I wish you all prosperity. I can see in your faces a 
healthiness, chubbiness and determination, so that when you 
get into your games you strive to win. I hope you do, but 
I also hope that when somebody else is a little stronger or 
a little better or a little fleeter and that somebody else wins, 
you will have self-restraint to be good losers. For it some- 
times' takes a good deal more firmness and character and 
substance that will carry us through life f<> bear the humilia- 
tion of defeal than to achieve success and win; not that you 
ought not to try to win. You oughi to have the feeling when 
yon win a race thai the nexl time somebody will heat you, 
and if he does, render to him what is d\w him. 

Now inv friends, good-bye. I am delighted to have met 
you. 1 hope this Mine will remain in your memories, as 
it certainly will in mine. I wish you all prosperity. God 
bless you all. 



XXXIV 

ADDRESS AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER- 
STONE OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, 
IRVINGTON, PORTLAND, OREGON 

(OCTOBER 3, 1909) 

Mr. Pastor, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

1 DON'T know that anybody questions the propriety 
of my attendance on this occasion, or that it is neces- 
sary for me to enter into an explanation. I conceive it to 
he the duty of the President of the United States to welcome 
and encourage and support every instrument by which the 
standard of morals and religion in the community may be 
elevated and maintained. It was my pleasure and my 
opportunity to take part in the dedication of an orthodox 
Congregational Church in Washington in the spring; my 
pleasure to take part in ceremonies in a Jewish tabernacle 
in Pittsburg; to officiate as the layer of the cornerstone of a 
Roman Catholic university at Helena, and now to take 
what part I may in the ceremonies of laying the cornerstone 
of a Universalist Church in this beautiful suburb of Portland. 
And I do it because I believe that the cornerstone of modern 
civilization must continue to be religion and morality. 

We have in our Constitution separated the civil from the 
religious. It was at one time my good fortune to visit Rome 
in order by negotiation to effect a settlement of a number of 
questions which had arisen between the Roman Catholic 
Church and the civil government in the Philippines. The 
government of the Philippines under Spain had illustrated 
that system known in the Spanish Government as the union 
of Church and State. Their interests were so inextricably 
united that it seemed almost impossible to separate them 

322 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 323 

but with the consent and acquiescence of all denominations 
in this country, I was authorized to go to Rome to meet the 
head of the great Roman Catholic Church, in order to see 
if those matters might not be settled amicably. I am glad 
to say that the result of the visit was a satisfactory settle- 
ment, equitable and just to both sides. But I started to 
mention it in order to relate that I ventured to say to the 
Pope that the division between Church and State in this 
country and their separation was not in the slightest degree 
to be taken as an indication that there was anything in our 
government or in our people which was opposed to the Church 
and its highest development, and I ventured to point out 
that in the United States the Roman Catholic Church had 
flourished and grown as it had not grown in many European 
countries, and that it had received at the hands of the 
government as liberal and as just and as equal treatment 
as every other church; no better and no worse; but that that 
was not to be taken as an indication that every officer of the 
government properly charged with his responsibility would 
not use all the official influence that he had to encourage the 
establishment of churches, their maintenance and the broad- 
ening of their influence in order that morality and religion 
might prevail throughout the country. 

This is a Universalist Church, known as a liberal church. 
I think it must have been a Universalist who said that the 
Universalists believed that they would be saved because 
Cod was good; that the Unitarians believed they would be 
saved because Unitarians were good. But whatever the 
creed, we have reached a time in this country when the 
churches are growing together; when they are losing the 
bitterness of sectarian dispute; when they appreciate that 
it is necessary, in order that their influence be felt, that they 
stand shoulder to shoulder in the contest for righteousness. 
They believe in the Fatherhood of Cod and the brotherhood 
of man; and the real broad Christian statesman is glad to 
accept from every quarter the assistance which will elevate 
the people and lead them on in that progress that we all 



324 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

believe the American people are making. If they are not 
attaining higher moral standards, then all this material pro- 
gress, all this advance in luxury and comfort is worth nothing. 

I am an optimist. I believe we are better to-day than 
we were fifty years ago, man by man. I believe we are more 
altruistic. I believe that each man is more interested in 
his fellow than he was fifty or one hundred years ago. I 
know you can point to instances of self-depravity, of self- 
ishness and greed, but I believe those instances are made 
more prominent because we condemn them more, and because 
by being made prominent the happening of them is made 
less likely. 

I am glad to be here. I hope this church will thrive. I 
hope it will maintain its high principles of making a good 
man and a good citizen and mixing them together. I 
welcome the opportunity to be able as President of the 
United States to say there is no church in this country, 
however humble, which preaching true religion, which preach- 
ing true morality, will not have my support and my earnest 
effort to make it more successful when opportunity offers. 



XXXV 

ADDRESS AT HOTEL FAIRMONT AT BANQUET 
TENDERED BY CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO 

(OCTOBER 5, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor and Men of San Francisco: 

THIS is the fifth time that I have had the honor and 
the pleasure of visiting your great city. And I am 
going to come again when I can. I have not had the privi- 
lege at any time of staying long. But one of the great 
advantages of your city is that you do not have to stay 
long to like it well. There is something so cosmopolitan, 
something so free and open-hearted in the way in 
which vou take in strangers, something so confident 
on your part that you have something to give to us 
which we ought to know and love and feel grateful about as 
long as San Francisco lives, that I come here always with 
a feeling that, first I am coming where I am welcome; 
second, that I will always carry away in my heart a 
memory, sweet and always to be called up when I think 
of mv favorite cities. 

I shall feel deeply this expression of your good fellowship. 
You have added to the character of San Francisco in the 
last three years something that makes you exceptional in the 
history of the world. I know, because there was a time when 
I had some responsibility connected with it — I know how 
that first year after the disaster that visited you seemed an 
unsurmountable obstacle to your restoring the city to the 
imperial sway that it had upon this coast. And we in the 
East were considering whether your power was to pass 
northward or southward, and were regretting that the 
Golden Gate and your magnificent harbor were not to be 

325 



326 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

in accord with the city upon its shores. And yet you have 
overcome all of this. 

I do not know how you have done it. Somebody ought to 
write a history about it and tell how it was that you over- 
came not alone the disaster, but the difficulties that in your 
own population you had to meet and that seemed for a 
time entirely impossible to overcome. I do not wonder that 
you are proud" of it. I do not wonder that your orators can 
speak of nothing else, for that fills the measure of your mem- 
ories during the last three years. I had intended to make 
a staid, sober, dull, business speech to you. It did occur 
to me as I heard what we had been delighted to hear to-night, 
that there was an answer to a question which was put to me 
with respect to the presidential tour. A man said to me, 
"It's all right in respect to your going and imparting informa- 
tion to the people. But how are they going to impart it to 
you with reference to the needs of their sections?" It 
occurred to me as I sat here this evening that if that man 
had been here to-night he might have heard a hint or two. 

Now, there are certain local matters of which I have heard 
with reference to which I should like to speak, because I am 
deeply interested in them. You have undertaken to furnish 
an auxiliary coast artillery force. The United States agrees 
to equip it and give it instruction, so that if your shores are 
ever threatened that force will be trained to work the guns 
for which in the Federal army we have but about a quarter of 
the men required. 

I understand that there is a movement in San Fran- 
cisco to erect an armory for that coast artillery. I sin- 
cerely hope it will succeed. You could not do anything 
that would aid the Government more than in the prep- 
aration and the furnishing of such a force. Infantry are 
good, and infantry we ought to have. But if you will 
furnish a trained force to man the guns, you will give us a 
force that, under ordinary circumstances if we did not have 
it, would take at least two and perhaps three years to fit 
men to discharge that duty. 



AND STATE. PAPERS 327 

Then I have heard something about the merchant marine. 
You are the gateway to the Pacific. 

The Philippine Islands have at last had justice done to 
them, and we are going to have free trade between them and 
this country. And that trade is going to grow. It may 
be slow at first, but it will grow so substantially and be of 
such mutual advantage to this country and the Philippines 
that when the time comes for us to say to them, "Go if you 
choose; cut off your relations to us: you are fit for self-govern- 
merit," in my judgment neither they nor this country will 
be willing to say so. I do not mean to say that we should not 
go Dii and give them as full a self-government as they desire. 
Hut I do mean to say that they will see it to their advantage, 
as you will, that the bond shall not be broken, and that 
some sort of relation like that between Australia and England 
or between Canada and England, shall be retained, and 
the markets of each country opened to the merchants of the 
other 

You have Alaska on the north. Its wealth — though it 
has produced marvellously, measured by the expectations 
of those who sal up and threw bricks at Seward for spending 
seven millions to buy it nevertheless hardly has been 
scratched. And if I can carry out my purpose, and Congress 
will follow my recommendation, we will have in that territory 
a government l>\ a commission which shall have legislative 
power to attend to the domestic needs of that territory and 
recommend to Congress the development that ought to be 
going on there. 

Congress and I do not hesitate to say it — has been 
derelict. It has not done its duly with respect to Alaska. 
It ought to do it now. I know there is a disposition to say 
that we ought to give it popular self-government. But I 
think that those of you who are familiar with the character 
of the settlements in that Territory will agree with me that 
they have not reached the time when that is the safest and 
best method of government for their real development. 

It is easy to catch the applause of the crowd by saying, 



328 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

"We are bound to self-government, and self-government 
is the best government possible." Well it is — under 
conditions favorable to it. But there are times and con- 
ditions of a temporary character when it is not the best. 
And we ought to say so. 

Then we are building the Panama Canal. We are digging 
out of it three millions of cubic yards a month. W T e shall 
certainly complete it by the first of January, 1915, and I am 
hoping, oh, so fervently, that it will be a considerable time 
before that. 

China is waking up. It is developing as it never has 
before. Its future is bright with the prospects of increased 
activity in its industries and the development of its marvellous 
resources. Its trade must grow under these conditions, 
and its international relationship become more and more 
valuable. 

Japan is showing marvellous advance in its commercial 
strides. And as it does grow in its commercial success 
it becomes valuable as a neighbor and a trader and a 
customer. 

I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries 
because, when we are all prosperous, the trade of each be- 
comes more valuable to the other. 

As has been said to-night, it is true that the future of the 
world for the next fifty or one hundred years in progress 
lies in the Pacific Ocean, at your gates. The success of your 
community as a business community and a trading com- 
munity is not going to be dependent entirely on whether 
you have a merchant marine or not. We have gotten along 
in a wonderful way in increasing our international trade 
without any merchant marine at all. 

But that is no argument and no reason for saying that we 
might not have made greater strides and might not have 
directed that trade much more intelligently had we had 
the ships which helped us to carry that trade to the foreign 
countries. 

The trade of South America is a most valuable one, 



AND STATE PAPERS 329 

reaching up nearly to a billion dollars. Of that sum 2r>0 
millions is between the United States and South America. 

We have word from our consuls that, appreciating the 
importance of that trade, European countries are stimulating 
by subsidies, and other means of encouragement that comes 
to the same thing, the addition to the number of sailings 
of steamships from European ports to South American 
ports, and thai that addition is showing an effect upon the 
trade and moving more of it proportionately to Europe. 

Now, we musl do something. We have a protective 
system in the United States which encourages industries, 
and we are able to carry it because these industries are com- 
pletely within our jurisdiction. But when we enter into 
competition on the high seas we can only control our own 
ships. We can not control the ships of other countries. 
Therefore we musl adopt some other method than that which 
we pursue with respect to the protection of our industries. 
What method is that ? 1 do not know any that commends 
itself quite as much to me. because it is on a protective prin- 
ciple, as to furnish to those men who will engage in that 
trade enough money to make the difference, to equalize 
the difference thai they encounter in their competition 
with foreign trade by reason of the greater expense of labor, 
the greater expense of material and the greater cost incident 
to the stricter regulations that we impose with respect to our 
sailors, and unless we also add an amount equal to the 
subsidies which our competing nations give to their own ships. 

That is said to !><• undemocratic doctrine. It is said to be 
subsidy. It is said to put money in the pockets of private 
individuals. As Tom Reed said: "That man is opposed 
to the statute because somebody might make a dollar and 
a half out of it." It is not true that we put that subsidy 
into his pocket to enlarge it. We put that subsidy into 
the pocket of a private individual or a private corporation 
to enable him or it to render to us a service — that is, to 
give us a merchant marine, out of which, with the subsidy 
added, he shall be able to make only a reasonable profit. 



330 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Now we make eight or nine million dollars out of our 
foreign mails. The proposition is to experiment first by 
using that profit which we thus make to pay mail subsidies 
and establish lines of those steamships between this coast 
and the Orient, between this coast and Australia, and between 
the east coast of this country and South America. Let us try 
that. Let us see how it works. If it gives us good times, 
and those lines, by reason of the fact that they carry the 
United States flag and are put on for the purpose of encourag- 
ing American business, do encourage that business — that 
will be a basis for further trial, further experiment and further 
building up of a United States merchant marine. 

If, on the other hand, that experiment proves to be a 
failure, the money that we have spent will be well spent 
in teaching that it was a failure. 

Something has been said about the conservation of re- 
sources by Governor Gillett — oh, no, there is another thing 
that I forgot about the Governor. He wants sixteen or 
eighteen battleships on this side of the water. Well if you 
will guarantee that the only attacks which are coming will 
come on this side, we will let you have the battleships. 

But I want to call attention to the fact that if, in two or 
three or five years, we have a Panama Canal, it in itself 
will double the efficiency of our navy, and the difference 
between the east coast and the west coast will be far 
less in sailing distance than it ever was before. The truth is 
that my impression about the Panama Canal is that the great 
revolution it is going to introduce in trade and the trade 
of the world is in the trade between the east and the west 
coast of the United States. 

I think it is going to affect the transcontinental lines so as 
to take from them a large part of the heavy bulk merchandise 
that can not afford to and ought not to pay high rates, and 
to limit their carriage to that kind of merchandise that needs 
rapid dispatch and is valuable enough to pay the high rates 
consistent with that rapid dispatch. 

It will also, of course, affect the trade between the eastern 



AND STATE PAPERS 331 

coast of the United States and the western coast of South 
America; for that, with the Panama Canal, will be almost in 
a straight line. If you will look at your geography, you will 
see it — your recollection of your geography does not tell 
you that, hut if you will put the ruler there you will 
find that is just about it. Also, it will develop the 
trade between the west coast of the United States and 
European ports. 

Everybody in the United States will, I am very sure, feel 
the benefits of the Panama Canal. How far it will affect 
the Oriental trade from New York or from Liverpool is 
a different question. There the competition of the Suez 
Canal will be so greai thai the modification will not be, 
I think, as much as is expected. 

But to come to the question of the conservation of resources 
— the Governor stated it with exactness. We must preserve 
our forests, but we must preserve them in such a way and with 
such a knowledge of forestry and the reproduction of the 
timber as shall permit us to enjoy all the timber that ought 
to be cut and to leave that which shall insure a constant 
reforestation of the country. 

Now, thai is a difficult matter. The Government forests 
amount lo aboul 195,000,000 acres. I think there are four 
times thai amount in private ownership. Seventy per cent, of 
the Government forests are subjected to proper forest regula- 
tions, and only about 3 per cent, of the privately owned 
forests are so treated. That is a subject probably only within 
the Slate jurisdiction. It seems to me that the States 
ought to be, and doubtless they are, taking immediate steps 
to bring about the preservation of privately owned forests, 
because we are all concerned in the maintenance . of our 
tiers, in the distribution of the waters, and the equalization 
of the waters which the forests affect. 

And the Federal government, unless in some way or other 
through the theory that it wishes to maintain navigable 
streams may exercise that authority, will find it difficult 
to deal directly with those who own forests and wish to 



332 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

cut them down without regard to the preservation of the 
trees and the equalization of the falling waters. 

Then there are the water-power sites. There are a great 
many water-power sites that the government does not control, 
a great many that either are controlled by the States or are 
owned by the riparian owners. But I think we now know 
enough of the growing value of that water power to insist 
that the water-power sites which are still owned by the 
government shall be treated in such a way that the govern- 
ment may, in its conveyance of these sites, retain sufficient 
control over the large amount of water power that is still 
to be used which is on government sites, to prevent a 
monopoly and the gathering of all that power into a single 
hand. 

And I believe it can be done reasonably by imposing con- 
ditions which in the beginning are not burdensome, but which 
by readjustment, after successful use shall have shown a 
profit, we can share with the government or with the con- 
suming public, by reduction in rates, the charges that accrue 
from a continuing use of that water. 

In respect to the reclamation of arid land — the irrigation 
of arid land — no one can visit this western country without 
realizing that that is perhaps the greatest problem we 
have. We used to think that our farming and agricultural 
land was so extensive that we never could exhaust it. The 
truth is, we are up against it now. And the real reason for 
the increase in prices in the things that go to make up the 
food of our inhabitants is the fact that all the good land 
has been or is rapidly being taken up. 

We must, therefore, if we would still retain agricultural 
control of the world, take some steps to avail ourselves of 
those great stretches of what seem now to be arid and 
desert lands, but which, by the application of water, when 
the water is properly administered, may yield a production 
marvellous to behold. 

So I think this trip has for me been full of information. 
It has made me much more alive to the immense importance 



AND STATE PAPERS 333 

of the conservation of our natural resources, especially of 
the importance of dealing properly with our arid lands. 

The Federal Government has, of course, resources greater 
than most corporations. How far the Federal Government 
ought to go in this matter may be a subject for discussion. 
We certainly ought to encourage, as far as we can, private 
enterprises in the building of canals, irrigating canals, and 
in using the water of the streams to bring into agricultural 
production those desert plains. 

But there are a great many enterprises about which 
it probably may be said that they are too venturesome, 
too full of risk for private enterprise. These ought to be 
undertaken by the Government with a hope of furnishing 
models to private owners thereafter upon which to complete 
the system and extend it. 

I am not a paternalist, and yet I am not a doctrinaire of 
the laisser-faire school. I think a judicious mixture of 
paternalism where it trains the children of the Government 
in the way in which they should go is proper. 

If we limit our expenditures on this head, as they are 
limited in the reclamation act to the proceeds of the sales 
of public lands and to the proceeds of bonds to be paid out 
of the sales of public land — as is now proposed — I don't 
think we shall have carried the matter to such an excess 
as will demoralize our people. 

I know there was a convention up at Spokane, or some- 
where, and a resolution was introduced that we should issue 
a billion of bonds for reclamation, a billion of bonds for 
irrigation, a billion of bonds for the improvement of rivers, 
and then there were two other billions, but I have forgotten 
just what they were to be applied to. Of course, such pro- 
positions send a chill down the back of a member of the 
appropriation committee, like my friend Senator Perkins; 
and everybody connected with the expenditure of money in 
Congress has gooseflesh when you even mention it. 

Therefore I warn those who are very earnest in this matter 
that they must be reasonable and wise as serpents in making 



334 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

their suggestions in respect to the matter so as not to frighten 
those who feel charged with saving us from financial disaster. 
And now, my friends, to return again to the personal 
element in the reception of to-day and to-night — I can not 
speak with the eloquence and fullness of heart that I feel 
welling up within me. I thank you and the people of San 
Francisco, for whom, in their stress and trial and admirable 
recovery I have the highest admiration, and I feel it a great 
honor to have at their hands such a cordial and sincere 
welcome as they gave me to-day, and such a good fellowship 
welcome as you have given me to-night. 



XXXVI 

ADDRESS AT CITY HALL PARK, FRESNO, CAL- 
IFORNIA, AT A UNION RELIGIOUS SERVICE 

(OCTOBER 10, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor, Clergymen of Fresno, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
Citizens of Fresno: 

IT HAS not been my part in religious exercises, until I 
began this trip, to do other than form one of the 
audience; hut I have found it impossible, under the friendly 
urgency of ministers of the gospel who occasionally desire 
a lay substitute, to keep from taking their places and attempt- 
ing to preach a sermon. 

I want to say, first, with respect to this audience, that the 
presence of the veterans of the Civil War is always a great 
inspiration to higher thoughts, io higher moral standards 
and to everything that goes to make our country worth 
living for. 

I had discussed the question with some of my companions 
as to what subject I might select for this Sunday afternoon 
as one taking part in religious exercises, and, with the true 
California spirit, it was suggested that I ought to point 
out to Californians how much they have to thank God for. 
And perhaps if I took that subject I could get more earnest 
sympathy and hearing than with some other texts more useful. 
There is a text, however; I do not know that I can quote it 
exactly; but to these gentlemen before me who have taken 
part in the battles of the war, it will come by reason of its 
comparison with great significance, that "He who conquers 
himself is greater than he who taketh a city." Now the 
home application of that text to the individual I need hardly 
point out. The struggles of a man who is burdened by 

"~ 335 



336 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

heredity or otherwise with the taste for strong drink, who 
having yielded many times has finally struggled and with 
the aid of God won the victory, those of us who are not so 
afflicted may yet appreciate and honor. But it is not drink 
alone. I sometimes think, and perhaps your distinguished 
Mayor, even more distinguished as a physician, will agree 
with me, that the appetite for food is one that may well 
enable a man, if he can control it, to look upon himself as 
better than the man who taketh a city. 

And then there are so many instances in little things. I 
like to dwell upon the importance of little things in life, 
for life is not made up of one great series of grand stand 
plays. It is made up of the little things that go either to 
make others happy or to make them unhappy. It is the 
conduct of the husband as he comes home after a tired 
day in restraining himself when he is met by his eager, curious 
wife who wants to know how he has been living during that 
day and what has happened. Perhaps something has 
happened that does not please him, and he does not like to 
refer to it, and he cuts her off with a short answer. Oh, 
I know it and so do you. You have done it. So have I. 
Now, the overcoming of that disposition, the keeping of 
her happiness, and not your comfort and disposition con- 
stantly in your mind and heart is what makes you greater 
than if you took a city. And so it is with reference to 
every one with whom you come in contact. If you have 
to say "No" say it in such a way as to indicate to the person 
to whom you say it that you would like to say "Yes" if 
you could; and when you do say "Yes" and are able to 
communicate it to the other person, then you are glad because 
you know it makes him feel happy. These are the homely 
illustrations of what I read into that text. But I am ex- 
pected, I suppose, to look at things from a political and 
governmental standpoint, and the text appeals to me more 
strongly in that regard possibly than in any other, because 
of some very acute experiences that I have had in political 
matters. 



AND STATE PAPERS 337 

Popular government we all approve of, though sometimes 
I don't think we know exactly why we do approve it. I 
think frequently we mistake ends for means. We talk about 
liberty as something to be secured as an end. We think of 
popular government as something to be secured as an end. 
Well, neither is true. Liberty is a means in the pursuit of 
happiness. Popular government we have because we 
believe in the long run that it is the best government, that 
it is the government which makes most people happy, and 
the reason is this : That in the long run the interests of any 
particular class, and by that I mean those people who are 
affected by the same set of circumstances, can by representa- 
tion in the government be better trusted to look after their 
own interests than any other class can be trusted to look after 
those interests, no matter how altruistic that class. So that 
if every class is represented, assuming that each class has 
intelligence enough to know its own interest, we can count 
on that being a better government than a government by 
one or a few or only a particular class. That is a popular 
government, but yon can not run a popular government 
merely by calling it so. You must have some means of 
determining what shall direct the course of government; 
what shall decide. That is the majority. I do not know 
any other method in a popular government. We do have 
checks. We do have indirect means of giving expression 
to that vote of the majority, but when you get down to the 
basis, it is the control of the majority. Now you can not 
have a decent, popular government unless that majority can 
conquer itself; that is, unless that majority exercises the 
self-restraint that men with great power ought to exercise 
if it is to be exercised justly, you can not have popular 
government. And why ? Well, take instances. I am not 
going into the various parts of the world, but I could call 
your attention, if it were not that I am in a responsible 
position now with respect to foreign countries, and must 
speak with care — I could call your attention to a good 
many instances where those who are in favor of popular 



338 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

government, and who, if I may use the expression, pull 
the tail feathers out of the eagle in deifying liberty and 
apostrophizing everything that we hold dear, think just as 
soon as they become a majority that that gives them the 
right to control the minority absolutely, and if the min- 
ority show any disposition to question it, they send them 
to jail. What is the effect of that? They say this is 
popular rule; this is the rule of the majority. So what 
does the minority do? Why the minority says "We will 
take to the woods," and they do take to the woods. 
And so we have that system that alternates between an 
election and a revolution and a revolution and an election, 
and we call that popular government. Now, why is it that 
it works that way ? It is because the majority and the 
minority do not govern themselves and do not exercise that 
self-restraint without which popular government is absolutely 
impossible. And that is the application of the text that 
comes home to me in thinking and dealing with these coun- 
tries that are struggling for popular government. A minority 
that is beaten in the election can not stand the defeat. It 
has to go to the woods. They are not good losers, and the 
majority are not good winners. Popular government is a 
most difficult thing to establish. We have had to hammer 
it out in a thousand years of Anglo-Saxon suffering and 
controversy and contest. And now it rests, where ? It 
rests in the common -sense, and the self-restraint of the 
American people. It rests in the knowledge of the majority 
that it must keep within the checks of the law and the 
Constitution if the Government is to be preserved. And 
it must rest in the view of the minority that it is much more 
important that the government should be sustained than 
that the minority should have for the time being control of 
or a voice in the government. Its rests in the knowledge of 
the majority that the rights of the minority and the individ- 
uals of that minority are exactly as sacred as the rights of the 
individuals of the majority. Our people exercised govern- 
ment over themselves when they adopted the Constitution 



AND STATE PAPERS 339 

of the United States. We do not vote directly under that 
Constitution. We have a vote which controls the lower 
House in the selection of the members. We delegate to those 
members the power to make laws. We do not make them 
directlv. We elect legislatures which elect Senators. Those 
Senators are reelected every six years. The members of 
the House are elected every two years, and then we elect 
a President every four years. Each one of those little 
joints between popular expression and will and the embodying 
of that will in I he resultant course of the Government, is 
something which the people voluntarily introduced into our 
government — for what purpose ? To enable them to govern 
themselves, so that the first wave of popular will should 
not find immediate expression in legislation, but that the 
people should take time, should discuss the matter, and 
should have several delays before they accomplish their 
entire purpose with respect to the Government. 

The people rule, there is no doubt about that, but they 
rule according to law and under the Constitution, and they 
voluntarily and willingly placed the restraints of that Con- 
stitution upon themselves in order that they might act with 
deliberation and with the checks that were sure to secure 
moderate, clear-headed, well-thought out policies, and there- 
fore when the American people voted that Constitution 
and now are maintaining it and supporting it, as I hope they 
always will, they are governing themselves, and are more to 
be credited than he that taketh a city. 

And finally even we — or rather even those of the cloth, 
whose place I humbly take at this hour, have learned to 
govern themselves in 'this. There was. a time in religious 
history when the man who was in governmental control 
and had his own theological theory to work out, worked 
it out by breaking everybody into believing it or else by 
cutting off the head or burning the body of the man who 
didn't agree with him. Well, you can reason out pretty 
logically sometimes that that was the course to be properly 
taken. ' And we tried it on both sides. One church and 



340 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

then another, as it got a chance, took that method of intro- 
ducing religion into the mind and soul and body of the person 
thus offered up. After a time there crept into the beliefs 
and practice of all religion the idea that the way to have 
religion conquer was to be gentle with views that were 
contrary to the creed and rely on the arguments and the 
spirit of the religion to win converts rather than to use the 
stake and the axe. They overcame the feeling in themselves 
that they must make their religion conquer by any means, 
and they took the method that introduced a broad tolerance 
of all religious creeds and let each creed and each religion 
speak for itself gently with a message of good will to all 
humanity; and that is what we have to-day. And that is 
what I am glad to think is illustrated by this meeting to-day. 
It means the brotherhood of man as between all christian 
religions, the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of 
God. It means tolerance for every belief and every creed 
that a man honestly and conscientiously entertains. And 
it means that with that tolerance all the people can be 
much more surely brought within the circle of those who 
believe and act upon that belief than by any other method. 



XXXVII 

REMARKS AT THE BANQUET TENDERED HIM 

BY THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AT 

LOS ANGELES, CAL. 

(OCTOBER 11, 1909) 

Mr. Toastmastcr, Mr. President, Members of the Los Angeles 
Chamber of Commerce, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I HAVE attended many banquets. I think that, measur- 
ing up for the last ten years, I may be said to be as 
great an expert on banquets as any thai the world affords, 
and while I have attended larger ones than this I have 
never attended one more beautifully appointed and never 
one set with such beautiful gems. If is not for me, a guest, 
to critieise the arrangement by which the ladies look on and 
see the animals feed. But it is only a type of their loving 
patience that they should be willing thus to retire and have 
the men seem to do the important tiling. 

It is a great pleasure for me to revisit your beautiful 
city after now some ten years preceded by a visit ten years 
before that, so that I claim temporarily to be one of your 
pioneers. 

I came into your city this morning by way of your harbor, 
and my interest in your city was originally largely developed 
not from an Eastern standpoint, but from the standpoint 
of a territory from which I have more right to hail I think 
than the State of Ohio — I mean the Philippine Islands, 
and I remember as I went there in 1900 I passed through 
your city and received the welcome and the wise advice of 
your distinguished fellow citizen, General H. G. Otis, who 
had labored faithfully and well and exposed himself to 
the dangers of death in order that we might tranquilize a 

341 



342 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

country, which God had placed under our guidance. Then 
another connection with the Philippines is the fact that after 
we had made a great General in the Army of the United 
States — General Chaffee — and fitted him for great tasks, 
and then retired him because the law required it, you had 
the good sense to take him and make use of the talents with 
which he was endowed. 

Now, coming in by way of that harbor I learned a lot 
of things. The fact is, in the trip across the country, I 
have had to justify my coming at all, and have attempted 
to explain that in coming I have gathered a great deal of 
information. But it has been said to me that if I do all the 
talking, how do I absorb any information. I only want 
to cite as witnesses those who are present to-night to 
prove that in the course of my journey there are oppor- 
tunities for information, and I am delighted to improve 
them. I thought that story of the hobo and the generous 
lady was exceedingly apt and that the gentleman who used 
it followed out to the uttermost the principles of that student 
of human nature. 

But with respect to your harbor, I am bound to say, 
first, that I have learned to-day by personal observation a 
great deal about it and of its value and of its possibility 
as one of the great harbors of the Pacific Coast that I 
did not know before. I did know that you were in- 
tensely interested in it. No man could live in the neigh- 
borhood of your junior Senator and have anything to do 
with the authority concerning that harbor without having 
it borne in upon him, as our Methodists say, with an intens- 
ity that he doesn't forget. It did not seem to me to be of 
such immediate importance that the harbor lines away 
out here on the west coast should be fixed for a particular 
harbor, but there was nothing for me to do under the 
circumstances but to end that controversy in view of the 
attitude that Senator Flint bore toward me, and I made an 
order that the engineers should fix those harbor lines or 
else some engineers would suffer. No, I do not ask your 



AND STATE PAPERS 343 

gratitude on that account. It was a matter of personal 
comfort to me, and I fixed them, and they are going to stay 
there, at least as long as I have control; but, of course, 
they are going to stay there. They were fixed by an eminent 
body of army engineers, than whom there are no greater or 
men of higher character. You were greatly concerned, 
or some of you were, when the gentleman who preceded 
the present engineer was assigned to some other duty 
and the present engineer put in. It is possible I have 
met Captain Frees. It is a little difficult to keep all the 
army officers, when there are 3,000 of them, in your mind, 
but I have met the present engineer — I met him this 
morning — and if there is any citizen of Los Angeles that 
is more imbued with the Los Angeles spirit than he is, I 
have yet to meet him, and I have met a good many. The 
truth is, with respect to army engineers, they are put where 
they are to do their duty, and when they are there they 
do their duty, and the great advantage that we have in 
building the Panama (anal to-day is that while we have 
the most eminent men at the head of that work, if they were 
to die to-morrow from any cause, yellow fever or pestilence 
of any kind suggesting immediate death to their successors, 
we could call upon the members of that corps immediately 
to furnish men who would step into their places and die if 
necessary in the discharge of their duty without a question. 
That is the kind of men we have in the army engineers, 
and if the lime conies under the regulations of that Depart- 
ment for the present lieutenant to move on and acquire the 
atmosphere of some other enterprising port and harbor 
and city, he will be followed by a man who will do his duty 
just as well as the presenl engineer, and you can count on it. 
The last speaker suggested a number of things that you 
would like to have from the general government. I am not 
a dispenser of the funds of the general government. I 
am its distributor, or at least those under me distribute 
the funds that the Congress of the United States appropriates; 
but living near the seat of government and having had some 



344 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

experience in the way that the government works and with 
the matters that influence the committees on rivers and 
harbors in both Houses, I can give you the benefit of that 
experience enough to prophesy a few things in regard to that 
harbor. I do not guarantee it. No wise man ever guaranteed 
what the verdict of a jury would be or what a Congress would 
do, but I venture to prophesy with that qualification, first, 
that you have got a harbor now sufficiently constructed to 
show that it is worthy of being improved to the uttermost; 
second, that you have taken the step which most of all will 
secure from Congress the money needed to make the harbour 
all that you wish it to be, and that is, you have voted to 
put your own money into the improvement of that harbor in 
order that the public may get the benefit of the wharf. The 
principle that has moved*. the committees in both Houses is 
that the Lord helps those who help themselves, and that 
they are most willing to put the Government's money into 
those enterprises in which the local communities are so 
intensely interested that they are willing to make large con- 
tributions themselves. Hence, I say without hesitation at 
all, that with your improvement secured, as you have secured 
it by a vote of bonds, there isn't any trouble about the 
improvement of your harbor as you desire. I say as you 
desire it. Our friend on the left suggested 45 feet depth. 
Well, that is all right, but what you will do with that extra 
10 or 15 feet I do not know until you get boats that have 
that draft. We had to make the Panama Canal 45 feet 
because it was a work which was to be constructed for all 
time. The locks when put in there can not be changed 
with any reasonable expense, and therefore the law provided 
that the Canal should be constructed of such dimensions 
that it would transport or furnish the means of transporta- 
tion for any vessel now sailing or projected. Well, there 
were two or three vessels projected of 38 feet maximum 
loaded draft, 88 feet beam and 800 feet long, and we have 
put in locks that are 41 feet deep over sill, that are a thousand 
feet of usable length and are 110 feet wide, but that is for 



AND STATE PAPERS 345 

the far future, because it would be most inconvenient and 
most expensive to change those locks, but it is easy enough 
to deepen a harbor like this; if you conclude that you have 
so many ships of 4.5 feet maximum loaded draft that you 
need that additional 10 feet I can prophesy that you can get 
it, but my impression now is if I were you I would not go 
for 45 feet direct. I would begin with something less. 

The Panama Canal is of course the greatest enterprise 
of a constructive character which has been entered upon 
for centuries. It will certainly be completed by the 1st of 
January 1915. We are now engaged in an excavation 
that equals or nearly equals three millions of cubic yards 
of material a month, and that would easily finish the Canal 
some two years before the date that I have mentioned. 
The uncertainty as to its completion depends upon the con- 
struction of the dam and the construction of the locks, and the 
engineers are not yet in a position to prophesy, as they could 
with respect to the excavation, when the whole work can be 
completed. What its effect will be upon the trade of the 
world is problematical. I do not think that we can always 
calculate with exactness how trade avenues are to change, 
but I think there are certain facts with respect to the opera- 
tion of the Canal upon the commerce of the world that 
we can make as promises. One is that its most important' 
function will be the trade between the east and west coast, 
of the United States. I low far it will affect the transcon- 
tinental lines of course it is difficult to say, but that it will 
make a radical change in the character of the merchandize 
carried I believe is certain. The next important change 
that it is going to make is in reference to the trade between 
this coast and Europe, and the next most important is the 
trade between the east coast of the United States and the 
west coast of South America. With respect to all other 
avenues of trade the Suez Canal is apt to be a competitor 
and the change that will be effected by a new way of getting 
through the continent is one that can only be known when 
the change has been effected and years have been given to 



346 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

allow that change to have all its effect. Certain it is, however, 
that the city of Los Angeles and the city of San Fran- 
cisco and the city of Seattle are the cities most to be affected 
by the completion of the Panama Canal, and no one can 
criticize, no one has the right to ridicule the effort and the 
great efforts that your city has made to establish a harbor 
for your city, so that you shall get the benefit of that great 
trade which the Panama Canal is certain to bring to the 
western coast. 

I do not know that the increase in the merchant marine 
is essential to your enjoyment of great benefits from that 
Canal. I do not think it is. I think if we were to go on 
as we are now, you still would derive immense benefit by 
the trade brought in here by foreign vessels and by the trade 
which could only be brought here by coast vessels — vessels 
of the United States. Nevertheless, you are on the Pacific; 
you are on that great ocean surrounded by the Orient on 
the one side, by the west coast of South America and by the 
west coast of North America on the other, in which the 
great commercial progress of the world is to be manifested 
for the next hundred years. And what that trade shall 
be is going to be largely influenced by the question of who 
controls the merchant marine that crosses its waters. Now, 
we haven't any international merchant marine. I defer 
to those vessels that are doing the best they can, but I mean, 
speaking at large, we have none and the question is, how are 
we going to get it? I do not know that the system of 
subsidy is to be the correct way of working out that prob- 
lem, but I do know that it is in accordance with the principle 
that we have followed in respect to the development of our 
industries — the protective system. We can not protect it 
in the sense of controlling foreign bottoms, and therefore, 
the only equivalent that we can offer is to pay those of our 
people who will build and operate our ships under our laws 
enough to equal the difference in condition between their 
running the ships and foreigners running foreign ships 
and allowing them a reasonable profit; and I for one am in 



AND STATE PAPERS 347 

favor of trying that experiment. It is true that we will 
pay money into the coffers of private corporations, and it 
is also true that they will have to render to us a service for 
the money which we pay into those coffers, because it is 
undoubtedly true — it is shown in our South American 
trade — that the control by the flag of the ships that carry 
the trade greatly influences the trade in favor of the country 
that owns that flag ami owns those ships. We must not be 
frightened by a word — we must not be frightened by a 
shibboleth. You say we are going to help along a selfish 
private corporal ion by contribution. Well, we are, because 
the private corporation is the instrument by which we wish 
to accomplish a great public good. We do not intend to 
give them any more than a reasonable profit for the good 
they render us. 

There are a good many other subjects that I should like 
io discuss with you. As I looked at that beautiful map and 
followed that red eye and green eye across it, and saw where 
I had inflicted my views on various suffering citizens of the 
United Slates at points across its surface, 1 wondered how 
long the American people would bear it, and therefore I 
hesitate to take up the questions that are just as important 
to you as they are to any of the citizens I have had the honor 
to address. The truth is, 1 doubt whether in New York, 
in Boston, in Chicago, in any city in the country, I should 
have the honor and opportunity of addressing so cos- 
mopolitan an audience as I now face, an audience made up 
of the bone and sinew of the community that has builded a 
beautiful city in a desert; that brings its water 230 miles; 
that goes 20 miles for a harbor; and that expects to enlarge 
by the application of water to earth, drawn I do not know 
from where. You are a marvel. You have got two marvels 
in California. One in San Francisco that has arisen from 
its ashes, and the other is Los Angeles that is risen from the 
desert. 

There is one thing that that map has taught me as I 
looked at it — has only confirmed that which comes to me 



348 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

every time I rise to address an American audience — I 
don't care whether it is in a small town resurrected from the 
desert in Colorado, or a large city, or anywhere else — there 
is in the faces of those people to whom I have talked a sense 
of contentment, of peace, and of determination to get on 
and subdue the obstacles that are before them, which they 
welcome because they are obstacles, in order that they may 
show their American spirit in overcoming them, and that 
spirit I find everywhere. Talk about anarchists and social- 
ists and discontent with the situation. It may be that I 
do not see those people; perhaps I don't. I am not anxious 
to see them. But I do meet the majority of the American 
people and they come out to me in order to testify their 
interest in the government and their pride in their country 
and their belief that there is nothing that an American can 
not achieve and can not overcome. I never was so much 
impressed before with the idea, if I may use a stock-breeder's 
simile, that we are breeding to a type, that we haven't any 
Englishmen and we haven't any Irishmen, though there 
are some that tell stories that are marvellously like it, and 
we haven't any Germans, we haven't any French, we haven't 
any Italians or Mexicans, but we only have Americans. 

Now, an allusion was made to my predecessor's pronunci- 
ation of the name of your desert here. He did not come into 
this country through a Spanish country, or else he would 
have known how that name ought to be pronounced. Allu- 
sion has been made to the policies of my predecessor. I 
yield to no one in my admiration for that great man and 
the map he laid out for those who were to follow him. Some- 
times it seems as if it were pretty burdensome for those who 
do follow them in order to keep up with the procession, 
but it is a great aid to have his example before me, to have 
the test of the judgment of the American people which he 
was able to make, and to know that in following along 
the general lines which he laid down, the administration 
which follows him is following the will of the American people. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

ADDRESS AT GLEN WOOD MISSION INN, RIVER- 
SIDE, CALIFORNIA 

(OCTOBER 12, 1909) 

Mr. Governor and Bishop and Gentlemen of Southern Cali- 
fornia: 

THIS dinner has assumed a phase that I did not expect. 
The truth is that the honor of unveiling the tablet 
to the Rev. Father Serra was one that I had not antic- 
ipated, but which I was glad to perform, but had I known 
what was to come I should have prepared myself with some 
investigation and some knowledge of the history of the 
country of that interesting period in California's life when 
the missions began and continued down to the time that 
we from the East came into California. 

Bishop Conaty has been good enough to refer to some 
of our experiences in the Philippines, and that enables me 
to say something appropriate of the settlement by monks 
of Southern California. I there became aware of the 
great work which had been done by the missions not 
only of the Franciscans, but of the Jesuits, the Recolletos, 
the Dominicans and the Augustinians in the Philippines. I 
became acquainted with the Spanish character and w r as 
made to know its heroic side by a study of what the Spaniards 
had to do to accomplish what they did accomplish in the 
Philippine Islands in the 15th and 16th centuries. We are 
in the habit, we Anglo-Saxons, of looking back to our ances- 
tors with a smug satisfaction and thinking that no one has 
exactly the right to that pride of ancestry that we have, and 
I think it reduces our heads somewhat and gives a proper 
sense of proportion to become aware of the fact that there 

319 



350 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

were others than Englishmen in the 15th and lGth and 17th 
centuries who were making for progress in the world and were 
fighting the battles of civilization under the burdens that it 
now seems impossible for them to bear. When you consider 
the voyages that were taken by the Spanish and Portuguese 
sailors, when you consider the hardships that were under- 
gone by the Spanish monks, in advancing the cause of 
Christian civilization, it is hard to believe the story in the 
Philippines. They made a people a Christian people, who 
were the only Christian people, and continue down to to-day 
to be the only Christian people, in the Orient. Now I 
have to-day enjoyed the privilege of seeing as much of 
Southern California as one man could see in twelve hours 
and I think it fitting that the journey should end in a build- 
ina- like this constructed to commemorate the missions that 
formed so important a part in the history of this region which 
we have been privileged to visit to-day. I fully sympathize 
with the desire to preserve as historical memorials worthy 
of preservation those missions and the style of architecture 
that those missions represent. I sympathize with the people 
of Riverside in desiring their government building to be 
erected on the mission plan. When we have any past of a 
picturesque character we ought not to destroy it, and Cali- 
fornia is one of the few States that reaches back far enough 
into the past to have an ancient picturesque architecture 
with which she can well make her present architecture 
accord. 

I have at another time and place delivered myself on the 
subject of foreign missions, and I am not sure that the 
time to-night will permit me to go into that subject. My 
association with the churches in the Philippines and with 
the Bishops of the various churches and the fortuitous preach- 
ins: that I have had to do as President of the United States 
at times makes me feel a little bit like a Bishop. But I 
know this and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, 
that the progress of modern Christian civilization is largely 
dependent on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions 



AND STATE PAPERS 351 

of every denomination. The truth is, gentlemen, that where 
we are advancing the cause of Christian civilization it docs 
not help us to introduce to those whom we would convince 
of the benefits of Christian civilization, the persons who 
represent the seamy side of our civilization, and those I am 
sorry to say, with the exception of the missionaries, are the 
only persons that advance themselves into heathendom. 
They go there for the purpose of buying or getting from the 
heathen what the heathen regards as but little, and what 
they know to be valuable. In other words, they are there 
for trading purposes, and when our non-Christian friends 
say that in those that represent us there is a great deal of 
guile it docs not convince them of the disinterested character 
of Christian civilization. It is only through the foreign 
missionaries who go there pledging their lives to the cause 
of the advancement of Christianity that we have presented 
to those whom we would convince of the strength and efficacy 
of Christian civilization that there is in that Christian civili- 
zation a living spirit that they ought to embrace. 

Now there is another note in the Bishop's address to-night 
which I listened to with pleasure, and that is that in Southern 
California there is a broad tolerance between all denomi- 
nations which willingly gives credit to the representative of 
any one who as a man and as a Christian has done all that 
he could and offered himself up for the advance of the race, 
and I was glad to note that of those who were interested in 
preserving the missions in Southern California there were 
90 per cent, who were not members of the Catholic Church. 
The truth is, gentlemen, we are making progress in Chris- 
tian tolerance, in the brotherhood of man and the Father- 
hood of God, and those who have any responsibility at all 
in the government of men welcome the progress of all 
churches as the greatest support of government and of 
peace on earth and good will to men. 

Now I want to respond to what the Governor has said with 
respect to California. I have valued much and appreciate 
greatly as an honor his company from one end of Cali- 



352 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

fornia to the other, and during the week that I have spent 
within the hospitable borders of this State I have felt deeply 
the welcome of all Californians. I know that welcome is 
sincere. I don't misconstrue it, but I know that Califor- 
nians are loyal to the backbone and they are glad to wel- 
come to the borders of their great State the representative of 
the Nation of which they are proud to be a part. Perhaps 
you are rather warmer in your welcome, perhaps you are 
more intense in your hospitality, because you are so far 
removed from Washington. If I were an every day story, 
if you had to see me every week, things might be different. 
But as it is, I am delighted to take advantage of the fact 
that you don't know me very well, and therefore that your 
welcome is entirely unqualified. 

But jesting aside, my dear friends, there is no experience 
in my life more delightful than that which I have had in 
California. It has been somewhat strenuous, but so life 
is generally strenuous if it is worth having at all, and I am 
glad to get out of California with the sweet and pleasant 
memory of this function held in such a beautiful mansion 
and suggestive of all the sweet romance of the early history 
of the State. 



XXXIX 
ADDRESS AT CITY HALL, PHOENIX, ARIZONA, 

(OCTOBER 13, 1909) 

Governor Sloan, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

1AM glad to meet you. It is a new sensation for me to 
talk to the people of a territory, and I may say 
thus far it is a very pleasant sensation. 

In the first place, I want to commend myself, and that 
is by having appointed Judge Sloan your Governor. In 
the second place I want to congratulate you on having 
such a territory, such energy and such enterprise as has 
called forth from the Republican party a pledge that you 
shall have statehood, and in order to establish my relation 
with you early, I want to say that so far as I am concerned, 
I am going to help carry out that promise as far as I can. 
I say that as a beginning of my speech and not as its ending. 
Sometimes it is better to postpone the marriage and every- 
thing else in a novel to the end, but I always have the habit 
of looking through to see whether it ends all right before 
I beerin, and I am inclined to think that the ladies before me 
generally follow that course. 

Now, gentlemen, and ladies, for T don't know whether you 
are going to let the ladies vote or not, and I speak there- 
fore with due consideration, you are anticipating statehood, 
you are anxious to show what you can do as an indepen- 
dent government, and I am afraid you are anticipatng the 
pleasure of thai independence without fully understanding 
or realizing the responsibilities of it; and therefore if after 
having made this announcement I point out some of the 
difficulties that you are to have, you will excuse me. You 
have got to formulate a constitution after the Congress 

353 



354 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

says you can come in, and I want to say a word about that 
constitution. In saying it I give you an earnest of the 
seriousness with which I say that I believe you will be made 
a State. A constitution is for the purpose of laying down 
fundamental limitations upon your legislature and your 
Executive. Now if you think that in the Constitutional 
Convention you ought to lay down all the limitations that 
are ordinarily included in a statute, you are going to make 
a great mistake. The greatest Constitution that was ever 
made is the Constitution of the United States; and you can 
go through that in a very short time. You take the last 
constitution that was made. It is the constitution of Okla- 
homa, and it is a zoological garden of cranks. I don't 
mean to say that it has not good ideas in it. It has. But 
the idea of tying down a legislature which is an experiment, 
so to speak, with the laws that are to be adapted to a new 
territory, with a long discourse imposing all sorts of limita- 
tions, is a mistake which you ought to profit by. 

I want to congratulate you on having room enough in 
this Territory to grow. It is about four times the size of 
Ohio, and Ohio is a fairly large State. Of course there is 
a good deal of soil out here that we would not at first sight 
value in Ohio, but by your energy and by the application 
of modern methods of agriculture you seem to be reducing 
it to a condition where it brings forth wonderful crops and 
enriches those who devote their attention to its culture. 
Then the Governor tells me that you have another occupa- 
tion — you can not call it agriculture or horticulture — I 
mean the hatching and raising of ostriches. I understand 
that this is the only State in which ostriches think it worth 
while to pursue race suicide, and that the result is that there 
is an industry, to call it by a general term, which is really 
profitable and which enables you to compete with South 
Africa. Then the alfalfa fields, the fruit and all the other 
products which you are able to bring forth make your future 
one which I need not assure you is most promising. But 
as I have said in the beginning, your assumption of 



AND STATE PAPERS 3.5.5 

statehood throws upon you a responsibility that will not 
enable you thereafter to charge it all to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. When you get into difficulty out here and have 
bad officials you can not say the fault is all at Washington 
because Washington does not understand your needs. Then 
the fault will be on your own head. I have no doubt that 
you will stumble and fall as other peoples and other States 
have stumbled and fallen, but you are Americans, you are 
come of a race used to self-government, used to taking hard 
knocks in the school of experience and profiting by them. 
And if by a caution I can restrain the desire of those most 
progressive, or most full of the idea of having limitations 
on government — can restrain them from making the con- 
stitution other than fundamental law with simple rules 
of limitation, if I can halt and induce the people of this 
State to take time to deliberate over that instrument which 
is to follow them so long in the history of their State and in 
its growth and development, I shall not have let this morn- 
ing go without its profit. 

I thank you for the cordiality of your reception. I like 
to look into your eyes and see the spirit of enterprise, the 
spirit of welcome to the man who for the time being repre- 
sents the Government of the United States of which you are 
so proud, and your recognition of the sovereignty of your 
country and a desire on your part to pay respect to him who 
for the time being represents the dignity of the law. 



XL 
ADDRESS AT PRESCOTT, ARIZONA, 

(OCTOBER 13, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen of Pres- 
cott : 

MY FATHER used to tell me of an old gentleman who 
lent his coat to another man and said to him as he 
went away, "Don't swear while you wear that coat." He 
went away and came back ofter two or three hours, and 
the owner of the coat asked him whether he had sworn. 
He said, "No, I have not sworn, but I never felt so much 
like lying in my life." [Here the President drank a glass 
of the famous Hassayampa water, handed him by the 
Chairman.] After that dose which your Chairman admin- 
istered to me, I feel like drawing the long bow more than 
ever on this trip. 

I am delighted to meet you. I am willing to admit, as 
I suppose you will, the truth of the statement of the Chair- 
man, that I have not anywhere had an audience of which 
this is not a peer. I see you admit it, and you haven't 
drunk any of that water either. I got some of the water on 
the way up, but I believe it was from below the crossing. 
I had it in a canteen, and I expect to try it on some of my 
party. 

My fellow citizens, I am glad to see you because I am 
glad to know that the population of Arizona, which I believe 
will soon become a State, is of a character to deserve it. I 
observe that even out of the mouths of babes and sucklings you 
hear the desire for statehood. I congratulate you on having 
such an energetic and pretty city. I have no doubt that here, 
as elsewhere in Arizona, as elsewhere in the new States 

356 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 357 

which I have had the honor to visit, there is a determina- 
tion on the part of each citizen in Prescott to make her popu- 
lation double in the next few years, to increase the wealth 
and prosperity and to make it known as a large place on the 
map. That spirit I found everywhere throughout the 
West. I found it subordinate, however, to the interest in 
the State and still more subordinate to the interest in the 
development of the country. All these feelings develop into 
an Americanism that makes a type in which every one who 
feels an interest in his country has a right to have great 
pride. Now I had the honor to address an audience at the 
capital of your territory this morning, and in the course of 
those remarks I ventured to prophesy that you would have 
statehood in the near future. The Republican platform 
upon which I had the honor to be elected promised 
statehood to Arizona and to New Mexico separately. I am 
not, however, the legislature of this government, and all 
I can do is to prophesy, not to promise. But from what 
I know, from what I have heard of the discussion, I am quite 
sure that the movement is proceeding, and that you may 
count on its success. Now then, if it is to be successful, I 
want to call your attention to the responsibilities that will 
be upon you as citizens of a State, as citizens of the country. 
You will have to select your own State officers, you will have 
to select your Representatives and Senators, but before all 
that you will have to make a fundamental law called your 
constitution, which is to govern your legislature, your law- 
makers and your executive thereafter, and that is a responsi- 
bility which is very heavy and to which I invite your careful 
attention. The trouble is that you are so anxious for state- 
hood, so determined to have it, that no matter what your 
constitution is, if it is presented to you, you will vote for 
statehood and vote for the constitution. At least that has 
been the experience in other territories. Therefore it 
behooves you to see to it that the men who frame your con- 
stitution are charged with the responsibility of making a 
good one. Now we have had constitutions made by 



358 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

territories coming into the Union which were voted and 
approved, and which did not approve themselves to those 
men who looked forward and understood what a consti- 
tution ought to be. It ought to be simple. It ought to be 
general. It ought to be comprehensive. It ought not to 
include every limitation upon the legislature that each 
member of that constitutional convention thinks would be 
wise to follow in legislation. You ought to leave some- 
thing to your legislature. Don't make your constitution 
read like a statute. Be statesmen and make it read like a 
fundamental law. Study the Constitution of the United 
States and see what the greatest instrument of fundamental 
law was and is, and how simple; how it has been elastic and 
has yielded to the demands of our increasing country, and yet 
is to-day the wonder of the world. Don't allow every fact 
or every principle, however sound, to be asserted in that 
constitution. Trust something to your legislature thereafter 
and don't bind them and yourselves in such a way that you 
will be struggling for twenty-five years to get away from 
something that was made in haste and not with the sense 
of deliberation that you ought to exercise in making a path 
intended to last for fifty or one hundred years. I am talk- 
ing sense, I know. You will find in your constitutional 
convention gentlemen who have radical progressive ideas. 
Many of the germs of truth ought to be carried out at least 
in statutes, but don't fasten yourselves down by all crankisms 
and by the views of people who want to make laws for a 
hundred years without knowing exactly what the conditions 
are under which those laws are to be made. I am not talk- 
ing just for the sake of talking. I expect that you are going 
to make a constitution here. I hope you will. I am going 
to do the best I can to help to give you the power to 
make it, but don't load down yourselves and your future 
with restrictions and limitations in your fundamental law 
like those which are in the Oklahoma Constitution, making 
it read like a long page of the statutes instead of a funda- 
mental instrument like some of the constitutions of the older 



AND STATE PAPERS 359 

States and the Constitution of the United States. Our 
fathers builded even better than they knew, and we have 
not gotten in advance of them in the matter of laying down 
simple principles of constitutional law. We do not know 
more than our fathers, for in that respect they have proven 
what they knew by the usefulness of the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Now, my friends, as has been said, I can stay with you 
but a short time. You give me great courage, and give me 
great inspiration as I look into your eyes and see that you are 
deliberate men, that you are intelligent men, and that you 
propose to exercise your suffrage in such a way as to have 
a government of law, a government that respects the vested 
rights of property, that respects the liberty of the individual, 
and a government that shall reflect credit on your popula- 
tion. 

I have passed from Boston to the west coast and down 
the west coast, and the thought that was uppermost in my 
mind as I addressed all the audiences which I have seen is 
that we are here and have lor years been breeding to a type 
of men, not German, not English, not French, not Spanish, 
not Mexican, not Swiss, or Swedish, but a type adapted to 
our civilization, a type of Americans by which we can all 
stand. There may be discontent in this country, but if 
so I have not found it in any community. In every com- 
munity, in every hamlet that I have addressed, there is a 
determination to make things better, both materially, in an 
educational way and spiritually. All they want is an oppor- 
tunity and they don't ask odds of anybody. Now, that is 
the spirit I have found everywhere, and I am proud to be 
an American, and to know that such a spirit is actuating 
our people, because its continuance assures the greatness of 
our country and the making of it such that we can continue 
to love it with all our hearts. 



XLI 

INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT DIAZ OF MEXICO 

HELD IN THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

BUILDING, EL PASO, TEXAS 

(SATURDAY, OCT. 16, 1909, 11 A. M.) 

THOSE present at the interview were Hon. J. M. Dickin- 
son, Secretary of War; Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Post- 
master General; the Governor of Texas and other State 
officials; Captain Archibald W. Butt, U. S. A., the President's 
Military Aide; Mr. John Hays Hammond; Dr. J. J. 
Richardson; and Mr. Wendell W. Mischler and Mr. Charles 
C. Wagner, the President's assistant secretaries. 

The President of Mexico was accompanied by General 
Manuel Gonzales Cosio, Minister of War; Hon. Olegario 
Molina, Minister Fomento (Industry, Colonization, Mines 
and Agriculture) ; Governor Creel of the State of Chihuahua 
(formerly Ambassador to the United States); Colonel 
Pablos Escandon, Chief of the Military Staff of President 
Diaz; and Ignacio de la Barra, Private Secretary to Presi- 
dent Diaz. 

President Tap: I am very glad to welcome you here, 
sir; I am very glad indeed. 

President Diaz: I am very happy to meet you and to have 
the honor of being one of the first foreigners to come over 
to give you a hearty welcome. 

President Taft: It gives me not only great pleasure to 
welcome the President of the great Republic of Mexico, 
but to welcome the present President of the Republic of 
Mexico, who has made it so great. 

President Diaz: I am very proud to grasp the hand of 

360 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 3G1 

the great statesman who lias made such a record in his life — 
in the Philippines, in Cuba, and, at present, as the head of 
the great nation of the United States. 

President Toft: I wish to express to you my belief that 
this meeting is looked upon by both peoples with a great 
deal of interest not as making stronger but as typifying the 
Strength of the bond between the two countries. 

President Diaz: .My friendly relations and my personal 
acquaintance with yon will make thousands and thousands 
of friends of tin 1 American and Mexican people, and streams 
and wonders of beneficial development will have to follow 
for the good of the countries. 

President Taff: You have already met the Secretary 
of War and the Governor of Texas. I shall be glad to have 
the privilege of presenting to you the Postmaster General. 
[The Postmaster General was then presented to President 
Diaz.] 

President Taft: I should be glad to have the privilege 
of meeting your stall'. 

[The Minister of War, General Manuel Gonzales Cosio, 
was thereupon presented to President Taft.] 

President Taff: [addressing the Minister of War]: I 
have been Minister of War, and therefore I have a sympathy 
with you. 

The Minister of War: You have been an excellent Min- 
ister of War and I have a good example in you. 

President Taff; I should be very glad to have the pleasure 
of taking you and Governor Creel, who interprets so well 
and who is my personal friend, into an adjoining room for 
just a i'vw moments. 

[Thereupon President Taft, President Diaz, and Gover- 
nor Creel retired to an adjoining room for a private inter- 
view, which lasted about fifteen minutes.] 



INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT DIAZ OF MEXICO 

IN THE FEDERAL CUSTOM HOUSE 

IN JUAREZ, MEXICO 

(SATURDAY, OCT. 16, 1909, 12.20 NOON) 

THOSE present at the interview were Governor Creel of 
the State of Chihuahua (formerly Ambassador to the 
United States); General Manuel Gonzales Cosio, Minister 
of War; Hon. Olegario Molina, Minister Fomento (Industry, 
Colonization, Mines and Agriculture); ColoneJ Pablos 
Escandon, Chief of the Military Staff of President Diaz; 
and Ignacio de la Barra, Private Secretary to President 
Diaz. 

President Taft was accompanied by Hon. J. M. Dick- 
inson, Secretary of War; Hon. Frank H. Hitchcock, Post- 
master General; the Governor of Texas and other State 
officials; Captain Archibald W. Butt, U. S. A., the President's 
Military Aide; Mr. John Hays Hammond; Dr. J. J. 
Richardson; and Mr. Wendell W. Mischler and Mr. Charles 
C. Wagner, the President's assistant secretaries. 

President Diaz: Your excellency, the Mexican people 
and I feel very proud indeed to have you on Mexican soil. 
I believe that the personal acquaintance which I have made 
with you and the friendly feelings which already exist between 
the United States and Mexico will be a guarantee of the 
continuance of the friendly, cordial and strong relations 
between the people of the two countries, and that success 
and prosperity will follow. 

President Taft: This is the first time, so far as I know, 
that a President of the United States has stepped beyond 

362 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 303 

the border of the United States, either on the north or on 
the south, and I esteem it a great privilege to be the Presi- 
dent at the time when that event has happened. I hope 
that it is significant of the tightening of the bond between 
the two countries. Railroads and other means of communi- 
cation, like the telegraph, have brought us closer to each 
other, so that the City of Mexico and the City of Washington 
are far nearer to-day than they ever were before, and that 
means a closer union of feeling between the two peoples, 
a closer feeling between those responsible for the Govern- 
ment of each country, and I esteem it the greatest honor 
of my life to have the privilege of representing the United 
States in such a significant ceremony. 

President f)i<n: I thank you very much. 

President Toft: I think your Excellency was good enough 
on the other side to let me present the gentlemen who 
accompany me, so that I will not go through that ceremony 
again. 

[President Diaz presented to President Taft his son, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Porfirio Diaz, Jr., of the Mexican Army; 
also his nephew, General Felix Diaz, Chief Inspector of 
the Mexican Police.] 



XLII 

TOAST OF PRESIDENT DIAZ AT BANQUET 

TENDERED BY HIM TO PRESIDENT TAFT AT 

THE CUSTOM HOUSE IN JUAREZ, MEXICO 

(OCTOBER 16, 1909) 

Mr. President, Gentlemen: 

THE visit His Excellency, President Taft, to-day makes 
to the Mexican territory will mark an epoch in me 
history of Mexico. We have had in our midst very illus- 
trious American visitors, such as General Ulysses S. Grant 
and the Honorable Messrs. Seward and Root; but never 
before have we seen in our land the Chief Magistrate of the 
great American Union. This striking trait of international 
courtesy which Mexico acknowledges and appreciates to 
its full value and significance will henceforward establish 
a happy precedent for the Latin American Republics to 
cultivate unbroken and cordial relations among themselves, 
with us and with every nation of the Continent. 

Actuated by these sentiments, which are also those of my 
compatriots, I raise my glass to the everlasting enjoyment 
by the country of the immortal Washington of all the happi- 
ness and prosperity which justly belong to the intelligent 
industry and eminent civism that are the characteristics of the 
manly and cultured American people, and to the enduring 
glory of its heroic founders. I raise my glass to the personal 
happiness of its illustrious President who has come to honor 
us with his presence and friendship whose display will make 
for the cultivation of the common interests which bind the 
two neighbor nations whose respective elements of life 
and progress find in their union reciprocal completion and 
enhancement. 



RESPONSE TO TOAST OF PRESIDENT DIAZ, AT 

BANQUET TENDERED BY THE LATTER AT 

THE CUSTOM HOUSE, JUAREZ, MEXICO 

(OCTOBER 16, 1909) 

RESPONDING as befits the cordiality of this auspi- 
cious occasion, I rise to express in the name and on 
behalf of the people of the United States their profound 
admiration and high esteem for the great, illustrious and 
patriotic President of the Republic of Mexico. I also take 
this occasion to pronounce the hearty sentiments of friendship 
and accord with which my countrymen regard the Mexican 
people. 

Your Excellency, I have left the United States and set foot 
in your great and prosperous country to emphasize the more 
these high sentiments and to evidence the feeling of broth- 
erly neighborhood which exists between our two great nations. 

The people of the United States respect and honor the 
Mexicans, for their patriotic devotion, their will, energy, and 
for their steady advance in industrial development and 
moral happiness. 

The aims and ideals of our two nations are identical, 
their sympathy mutual and lasting, and the world has become 
assured of a vast neutral zone of peace, in which the con- 
trolling aspiration of cither nation is individual human happi- 
ness. 

I drink to my friend, the President of this great Republic, 
to his continued long life and happiness, and to the never- 
ending bond of mutual sympathy between Mexico and the 
United States. 



365 



XLIII 

REMARKS AT THE DEDICATION OF THE GIFT 

CHAPEL AT FORT SAM HOUSTON, PRESENTED 

BY THE CITIZENS OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 

(OCTOBER 17, 1909) 

Mr. Master of Ceremonies, Mr. Ogden, Clergymen of the City 
of San Antonio, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

YOU will hardly believe me when I tell you that this 
ceremony and the burden that I am now trying to 
discharge came to me but to-day. My itinerary in the last 
month has been so varied and I have been trying to catch 
up with it with so much energy that "sufficient unto the 
day is the evil thereof," and I have had to meet the tasks as 
they have come; but I should be certainly wanting in power of 
expression, and in that heartfelt sympathy which makes 
expression, if I could not say something on this occasion 
which awakens so many pleasant thoughts in my mind. 

The first thought that comes to me is that the exceptional 
circumstances by which this beautiful building has been 
contributed by the city of San Antonio, by the people of that 
city, to the army post here, speaks wonders, both for the 
people of the city of San Antonio and for the Army of the 
United States which has been stationed here. It has not 
always been so at every post, but that you should love the 
army and that the army should love you under the conditions 
is a noteworthy fact in which I rejoice. This is a beautiful 
post. I fear there are some parts of the country which 
might say that this post has been unduly favored by reason 
possibly of the assiduity of the Congressman who repre- 
sented you, and the weakness of the Secretary of War whom 
he influenced. I am prepared to defend my successor, Mr. 

366 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 367 

Dickinson, who accompanies me and who fortified me in the 
policy which led to the establishment and the improvement 
of this great post ; and the visit here convinces me that those 
representatives of the army — officers and enlisted men — 
who have had the good fortune to be stationed at San Antonio 
vindicated the reputation of the army and entitled themselves 
to the consideration, association and friendship of the people 
of San Antonio. There are places in the country that do 
not value such association as this which you have in San 
Antonio, but they make a great error. You have seen the 
benefit, have encouraged the coming, have made this post 
a delightful post for every one in the army connected with 
it, and by the gift of this building, devoted to religion and 
morality and the rational amusement of a library, you show 
what yon regard as the highest standard of an army and 
what it should be. 

We do not unite officially under our Constitution Church 
and State, and sometimes it has been supposed that that indi- 
cates a coldness on the pari of our government toward 
religion and morality based on religion. You know and I 
know that nothing is farther from the truth, but that the 
government does depend and rest on morality and religion 
and is anxious in every way possible, except the selection of 
a particular religion and making it a State religion, to encour- 
age religion and morality in every department, and among all 
its peoples. 

Now, when it comes to the treatment of an army, when 
we take over a great body from thirty, to sixty, to one hundred 
thousand men, and house them and feed them and clothe 
them, give them the places in which to live and surround 
them with those limitations and restrictions that are necessary 
for the discipline of the army, as in the navy as well, it 
becomes the part of the government to furnish to those men 
the opportunities for the worship of God and for the pursuit 
of rational amusement in such a way as not to lead them to 
retrograde steps, and hence it is that we appoint chaplains 
of different denominations and pay them out of the treasury 



368 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of the United States; both in the army and the navy, and 
in the charitable and other institutions of the government. 
And this is not regarded as uniting Church and State. 

I have said that this is a testimony to the generosity and 
appreciation of the people of San Antonio. It is. It is an 
expression of generosity that means such and shows that you 
have a community here that first appreciates a good thing 
when it sees it and then is willing to go down into its pockets 
and show that it really feels as it says. 

I can not now forbear to speak a word about the Army of 
the United States of which temporarily I have the honor 
to be Commander-in-Chief. I am not a member of the army 
and therefore can speak of it with an entire disinterestedness 
and impartiality. 

The army does not get its share of praise. It sometimes 
falls to a man in Congress or elsewhere to take what he calls 
a fall out of the army officer or out of the army establishment 
and we do not rush forward to defend it as we ought. Army 
officers by reason of the discipline that must be maintained 
are obliged to keep quiet and not defend themselves and the 
establishment as they might. Now, I have no such limitation. 
I have a right to say what I think about that army of devoted 
men. I know something about it. I was in the Philippines 
when they were going through a campaign that in its way 
was as dangerous to life and limb as any campaign that any 
army went through. I was there when they had to exercise 
that self-restraint under provocation that no man can know 
except the one exposed to the dangers that they there suffered, 
and I know what efficiency they showed both in the uphold- 
ing of quasi-civil government and in the pursuit of the men 
who were seeking to kill them on the one hand and having 
their children educated in the towns on the other at the same 
time by the very army which they were attempting in every 
way to decimate. The army went to Cuba. It stayed there 
two years. It was extended all over the Island; in every 
hamlet, in every large town was a detachment of troops. 
Did you hear of a single trouble occurring in a foreign 



AND STATE PAPERS 3G9 

population guarded by that army ? Not one. Of what army 
in the world can you say that but the army of the United 
States? In the Philippines it was so that they had to be 
divided up in 500 different posts. They had to be com- 
manded by captains, and first lieutenants, and second lieu- 
tenants, and some posts even by sergeants, and the enlisted 
men showed there the capacity for leadership. Each man 
at the head of a post was conceiving a campaign against the 
enemy in the neighborhood, and they were there. That 
spirit of self-restraint, intelligent self-reliance, that every 
American soldier has. Is exceptional in the history of the 
armies of the world. The extension of the members of the 
army over the entire world now has broadened its knowledge. 
I don't think we can afford to reduce the army at all. I 
think we need an army of this character of not more than 
100,000 in ninety millions of people. Of course there are 
some distinguished statesmen who see in that 100,000 a 
threat to our institutions. Well, I leave it to the people of 
San Antonio whether the presence in their neighborhood 
of these men to whom they have given this beautiful evidence 
of their appreciation -whether they fear that the free institu- 
tions of this country are endangered by the existence of an 
efficient army of 100.000 men. 

The occasion to-night is one that fills me with personal 
pleasure, because if fell to my official lot to have to do 
with the improvement of this post, and to come here and find 
not only a beautiful climate in which the army can exercise 
and drill the year around, but to find a beautiful atmosphere 
of association with the people of the community that makes 
every one who knows anything about it glad to increase the 
post because the people want it. gratifies me very much. 

I don't know that T am making a speech that is exactly 
adapted to the dedication of a church. I have not been long 
in the business of preaching, but T am glad here in the name 
of the people of flic United States to receive from the people 
of San Antonio this beautiful building, this evidence of their 
love and appreciation of the army and this token that they 



370 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

desire to help the army in its standards of high morality and 
in religion, and this applies I know both to the officers 
and enlisted men. It is a most appropriate building for 
all these purposes, and will remain here as long as 
the other buildings put up by the government, to show the 
attachment and loyalty of the people of San Antonio both to 
the government and to those representatives of the govern- 
ment whose fortune it is to live in this neighborhood. 

I now dedicate this edifice to peace, good will and 
humanity. 



XLIV 
ADDRESS AT CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS 

(OCTOBER 22, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I AM delighted to be here and to meet the citizens of this 
enterprising city of Corpus Christi, and I am glad to 
receive their welcome as the temporary head of the Nation. 
I am glad to see the school children arrayed here, because it 
speaks well for a community that can have such school 
children. I think it does them good and gives them a 
patriotic thrill to come together on an occasion like this to 
meet the man who for the time being represents the 
sovereignty of the Nation which they love. 

I am glad to be in this southwestern part of Texas. I 
think it is southwestern. I have been travelling for a good 
many days and I have not yet gotten to the eastern part of it. 

It has been my great fortune to spend three or four days 
in this neighborhood, and to spend them out in the field, 
so that I am reasonably confident that you who have had 
more experience with this productive sun of yours can stand 
it even better than I. 

I am delighted here to have the privilege of meeting and 
receiving the hospitable greeting of your Governor. The 
Governor and I have made a little arrangement between 
ourselves which perhaps, betraying a little confidence, I 
may tell you all. I am not sure how your local committee 
will like it, but the Governor has arranged that he is to wear 
a silk hat in deference to the Presidency, and I am to wear 
a soft straw hat in deference to the Governorship; so that 
if you see any apparent lack of congruity in that matter, you 
will understand that arrangement was made in El Paso. 

371 



372 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Seriously speaking, I am exceedingly obliged to your 
Chief Magistrate for his continued hospitality and his kind- 
ness in visiting and welcoming me to the various important 
parts of the State. 

And now, my dear friends, there is another occasion for 
this meeting to which I must make reference this morning. 
It is to the object of the Inland Waterways Convention, 
which manifests its importance by calling so many promi- 
ent representatives from all sections of the country to take 
part in your deliberations. 

The subject of the conservation of our national resources 
received its first impetus from that crusader and reformer, 
Theodore Roosevelt. He pointed out how wasteful in the 
past we had been of those blessings which God has showered 
upon our country and yet which had limitations that if we 
did not respect would ultimately bring us to a famine in 
respect to many of them. He pointed out the necessity for 
the irrigation and reclamation of our arid and semi-arid 
land. He pointed out the fact that we had conferred upon 
private individuals and corporations ownerships of great 
mineral deposits, especially of coal and phosphate; that 
under our present laws, by mere agricultural settlement, per- 
sons and corporations might acquire sites upon which great 
water power could be obtained from the streams and sold to 
the public when converted into electrical power. He pointed 
out the necessity for our saving our forests and reforesting 
parts where the forests had been destroyed, not only for the 
purpose of preserving our timber preserves, but also for the 
purpose of equalizing the rainfall, preventing erosion of the 
soil by cloudbursts and overfall of rain, as well as by pre- 
serving the level in our navigable streams, so that they 
might be navigated the year round, and thus he led up to 
the improvement of our waterways all over the country, 
in order that by the use of these waterways and the cheapness 
of transportation we might have a substantial means of 
restraining the excessive railroad rates for the transportation 
of our produce. Now that program is a long one. It is 



AND STATE PAPERS 373 

one in respect to which we have taken some important steps. 
Of the government forests we have put about 70 per cent, 
in forest reservations under control, so that we shall not 
suffer from the forest fires or the denudation by private greed. 
We have not taken the steps that ought to be taken, but which 
doubtless will be, following the model of the general Govern- 
ment by the State governments, which shall preserve the 
privately owned forests, which are four times the size of those 
of the Government itself, from fire and from that sort of 
treatment which shall make the country a waste. We have 
not yet adopted the laws, but I hope to recommend them to 
Congress, by which the Government shall retain some 
control over the use of the coal lands still owned by the 
Government and still to be put under private use. 

We have not yet adopted a law, but I hope to recommend 
one, by which the water-power sites shall be segregated from 
other parts of the public domain and parted with only under 
such conditions as shall enable the Government to secure a 
proper revenue therefrom, and to regulate the rates of power 
charged by those who shall take possession of those sites and 
transform the water power into electricity. 

We have not yet adopted a rule, but I hope we may, and I 
shall recommend it. by which we shall retain some control 
over the phosphate lands of the Government containing 
immeasurable wealth in respect to the fertilizers of the soil 
of the West, leasing them or parting with them on such 
terms as to prevent the exportation of the phosphate or the 
charging of too high rates for its use. 

The preservation of our waterways is one that has long 
attracted the attention of the Government; and while we do 
not permit other people to criticize us, when we get together 
in a convention and talk to each other confidentially, we 
must recognize that even we have made mistakes at 
times. 

We have invested about $600,000,000 in our waterways. 
We have done very good work with reference to sea 
harbors, and we have done some excellent work, when the 



374 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

work was specified, in helping to make our rivers more 
navigable; but the trouble with the work has been that it 
has been done largely by piecemeal. It has not carried out 
a theory or a great project with reference to the establishment 
of a great avenue of transportation, and the time has arrived 
for changing our policy in that regard. Sometimes that 
body of men who have had charge of our waterways in the 
execution of the improvements appropriated for, the army 
engineers, have come under criticism because of the policy 
pursued by the Government, that is most unjust. That 
policy has been determined by the river and harbor 
committees of the Senate and the House — that is, the Com- 
merce Committee of the Senate, and the Rivers and 
Harbors Committee of the House — and it has usually 
been determined by the clamor from home for appropria- 
tions, and by party considerations, whether there was enough 
money in the Treasury to justify the appropriations and 
not subject the party in power to too great criticism for 
wasteful extravagance. 

Now as long as that limitation continues, as long as that 
state of affairs is allowed to exist, we may be sure of having 
a piecemeal, and a — what shall I call it ? — a procession by 
jerks in reference to our improvements. Every man who 
looks at it from a business standpoint — and a business stand- 
point is a patriotic standpoint — knows that what ought to 
be done is for us to agree on the great projects that are 
necessary to better our conditions; to have those projects 
surveyed ; to have the experts determine whether the proposal 
is practical; to have it determined by Congress that it will 
work the improvement hoped for; and then, having made up 
our minds to do it, to issue the bonds to pay for the construc- 
tion. I do not think there is any distinction between the 
improvement of the Ohio River from Pittsburg to the 
mouth at Cairo, of the Mississippi River from the headwaters 
of that stream to New Orleans, from the head of navigation 
in the Missouri River to its mouth, and the inland waterways 
of the East, or the inland waterways of the Gulf, or the inland 



AND STATE PAPERS 375 

waterways of the West, and the construction of the Panama 
Canal. 

You ought to take each as a measure by itself, determine 
whether it is worth the expenditure, and then if it is, get your 
money in the quickest way and build your work in the 
quickest way, so that you shall get a benefit from it at once. 
That is economic and it is business-like. Now of course 
I recognize the danger that there is in the proposition that 
you issue bonds for such enterprises. In other words, that 
when you issue bonds you are just like, was it not brother 
Micawber, who when he had just written a note and turned 
it over, thanked God that that debt had been paid. There 
is a disposition, when you pay for an enterprise by bonds, not 
to realize that some day those bonds have got to be paid, 
and that that is no payment. Nevertheless, I have confi- 
dence in the conservatism of the American people and Con- 
gress that they will not adopt every enterprise haphazard 
and go into the business on the theory that it does not cost 
anything because we can issue bonds to pay for it, but I 
believe they will go to work with conservatism, that they will 
calculate the question whether now is the time to do the work, 
or whether the country ought to develop more before we 
make such an expenditure. 

Now you will say I am influenced by my beginning. I 
came from the Ohio Valley, and the Ohio River improve- 
ment has reached such a stage that we have gone on and 
built dams and demonstrated the possibility of making a 
nine-foot stage of water from Pittsburg to Cairo and keeping 
that nine feet every month in the year. That is going to 
cost sixty-three millions of dollars. It has been surveyed and 
carefully estimated, and that is the cost we may depend upon 
within reasonable limits. 

Now I say if we are in favor of such an enterprise as 
that, let us vote the bonds and build it as rapidly as 
possible. You are not without interest in that Ohio River 
improvement. The fact is that there are nine feet from 
Cairo to the Gulf, and if you get your coal down and all those 



376 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

other articles of heavy merchandise that must travel by 
water, if they are to come to you at all, ultimately you have 
to count on getting that all the way by water, and that will 
come through a nine-foot intercoastal canal. 

But, my friends, before you can induce Congress to vote 
the money for that canal, or the bonds, you have to show 
that you have grown to a point where the trade will justify the 
expenditure. That is a matter of growth, and whether you 
have it or not I do not know. I expect, if I took a vote, I 
would hear a very affirmative expression from the present 
Convention, but fortunately we do not all pass, that is, we 
have not a complete vote on everything that affects us in 
this country. 

That the improvement of harbors and waterways is a 
matter to which we may properly devote our attention is 
demonstrated by the fact with respect to other harbors 
that have been made such a success. 

Take the harbor of Galveston. That harbor, it was 
prophesied long ago, could amount to nothing because of the 
obstacles that were there, and a great deal of money was 
spent on it, and then the Lord seemed to take a hand and 
wiped out the entire town. But the energy of those citizens 
met the obstacles, and the city was rebuilt, and to-day it is 
the second port in the United States. But Galveston is a 
type of what can be done when you have trade that will find 
its way out, and when you adopt the best means to give 
expansion to that trade. Now just what ought to be done 
with reference to the intercoastal canal at this point I do not 
know. You have had the reports of engineers; you have 
had your example in a boat which you have here which goes 
from here to Galveston, as to the reduction of rates. There 
is not the slightest doubt that the best means of controlling 
railroad rates is water communication; but that is not the 
only means, and we ought to see it to that our interstate 
commerce law is made to accomplish the purpose declared 
in it by adding to its provisions so as to make it effective. 
I am not in favor of drastic legislation against railroads 



AND STATE PAPERS 377 

except such as is necessary to keep them within the law and 
to keep them within reasonable rates. The truth is we 
want to encourage our railroads. You will rush in a body 
of 30,000 people in a county, and you will vote bonds for 
a railroad if it will only come in. Then it will come in, and 
after a time you won't find a friend of that railroad in that 
county — except possibly its local attorney. Then you will 
proceed to legislate and you will do injustice to that railroad, 
but after a while, after you have done injustice to the point 
where you don't get the proper accommodations, and where 
you drive them into a system of economy that does not build 
up your country, you finally begin to realize that the only 
good policy as well as the only honest policy is a square deal 
to the railroads so as to give them the rates they ought to 
have and not allow popular prejudice to deprive them of 
reasonable profit for the investment, including the risk that 
they made' when they went into the business. 

Now my friends. I did not intend to make as long a speech 
as this, but I only intended to outline what is before the 
National Government with reference to the conservation 
of our resources, the improvement of the waterways, and, 
in connection with the improvement of the waterways, the 
strengthening of the hand of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission so that we may have reasonable rates, so that as 
this southwestern country here in Texas grows up, as it is 
bound to grow, changing from a stock country to an agri- 
cultural country, to a place where you will produce cotton 
enough to make you all rich, that you shall have the means 
of putting that cotton on the market at a reasonable rate, 
in order that you may get a proper profit out of it. 

I do not mean to limit you to cotton. I believe there are 
lots of other things you can produce, including children, and 
they all tend to the comfort of your homes, to making you 
better Texans and to making you better citizens of the 
greatest Republic on earth. 

I want to thank the Confederate and the Grand Army 
veterans who have honored me by coming here this morning. 



378 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

I hope this test of the Texas sun will not be too much for 
them. When they were earlier in the field of arms, they 
were able to withstand the sun a good deal better than 
some of us that have a little too much avoirdupois, but it 
is a great scene to see the mixture of those who fought for 
the blue and those who fought for the gray here in Texas 
sitting together and worshipping the old flag and feeling a 
common pride in the deeds of heroism that were done in 
the Civil War between '61 and '64, and that we remember 
now and use now only to weld more closely all of those who 
gather under the starry banner. 



XLV 

REMARKS AT THE BANQUET TENDERED BY 
THE CITIZENS OF DALLAS, TEXAS 

(OCTOBER 23, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor, Bishop Garrett, Senator Culberson, 
Gentlemen of Dallas and North Texas: 

I LIKE an optimist, and I like to sit next to one, and I like 
an optimist in a prince of the church, too. If they are 
not optimists, we ought to give up altogether. I congratu- 
late the gentlemen of Dallas and of North Texas on their 
representative for this evening. I think it was wise, if a state- 
ment of needs was to be presented to the general Govern- 
ment, that you should have taken one accustomed to form 
supplications. If he has left out anything that the general 
Government ought to attend to, I shall call on my friend, 
Senator Culberson, with his broad view of the Constitution, 
to point it out. It has escaped me, at any rate. 

With reference to forestry, I am not aware that the United 
States has any particular ownership in the forests of East 
Texas, and if they are to be preserved and reforested that 
must be attended to, I think, by the State of Texas. The 
Bishop says yon would like a little help. Well, there are 
some propositions with reference to reforesting by the 
Federal Government on the theory that the Federal Govern- 
ment has the control of navigable streams, and that navigable 
streams, in order to be navigable, should be navigable the 
year round — that forests are useful in the economy of nature 
for the equalizing of the furnishing of water to those streams, 
and therefore that it is the business of the Federal Govern- 
ment to purchase sufficient land that ought to be forest land 
to make those streams equal the year round. Now, whether 

379 



380 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

my friend, Senator Culberson, will follow me in that course 
of reasoning to show that that is within the Federal function, 
I do not know, but I am sure that my friend, the Bishop, will. 

With respect to the boll-weevil and the green fly, they 
come within the general welfare clause, and we are doing 
the best we can. Uncle Jimmie Wilson reports every week 
at the Cabinet table on the boll-weevil, so that I am fairly 
familiar with it. I do not know that it is especially a 
Texas product, but we do hear more of it from Texas than 
any part of the country. The green fly is a gentleman with 
whom I am just making an acquaintance. But I shall con- 
sult Secretary Wilson and see that he, too, is covered by the 
general welfare clause. 

With respect to irrigation, we are, if I understand it, 
engaged in a work in New Mexico, near enough to the west 
border of Texas to furnish, when that project is completed, 
a very considerable amount of water to that part of Texas 
that is exactly like heaven, your Grace, when you get water 
on it. The comparison otherwise is different. And I am 
very hopeful that the project and many others arising, not 
from the general welfare clause of the Constitution, but due 
to the enterprise and cupidity of man, may make that vast 
country that you have within the borders of this State as 
full of happy men and women and as productive as the 
bringing of water to the soil can make it. 

Then, too, the Bishop mentioned ports and waterways. 
Well, ports do come within the strict limitation of the Con- 
stitution, and we are engaged in the Government, as far 
we have money, in improving the ports. My own impression 
is, that there is a better and more comprehensive method of 
attending to this matter than has heretofore been attempted 
or projected — that we ought to decide upon particular 
improvements of extended effect and determine that these 
things are to be done, and then do them with as much dis- 
patch as possible. That involves what I haven't hesitated 
to say I am in favor of — when you get a project that ought 
to be done, I am in favor of issuing bonds to do it. But 



AND STATE PAPERS 381 

that is very far from saying that I am in favor of every 
project that is suggested, because it is easy to issue bonds 
to do it. In other words, I think that if you adopt that 
system, you must pursue a method of rigid examination 
into the merits of the project to see, not whether in the distant 
future it ought to be done, but whether it ought to be done 
now; and if it ought to be done now, then to do it in the most 
economical way, and the most economical way is to take 
your money and not wait for it until it accumulates by a 
surplus from your ordinary revenues, but to issue bonds and 
do it and share with posterity the burden of that which is 
of benefit to posterity. 

Then the Bishop in that list that he presented alluded to 
the reclamation of swamp lands. Well, I am not prepared 
to say that that can not be worked in, having reference to 
the general welfare clause and the necessity for preserving 
the navigation of the streams. 

Speaking seriously, the conservation of our resources, to 
which the Bishop has referred, is a subject of immense 
importance, and it involves not only the construction of 
waterways and the reforestation of our forests, but also the 
prevention of reduction in the erosion of our farm lands by 
the floods, which in theory at least would be largely reduced 
in volume, and much better able to be controlled, if our 
forests were extended and certain improvements entered 
upon in respect to our rivers. All I can say to the Bishop 
with respect to that is that the matter has been noted and 
will doubtless be worked out in due time. 

The conservation of our resources is going to test the prac- 
tical operation of our Federal Constitution in cooperation, 
if I may use that expression, with the State constitutions, and 
this is going to involve joint operation on the part of the 
States between themselves, and their cooperation with the 
Federal Government. I believe it can be worked out. I 
believe that the Federal Constitution —the greatest instru- 
ment that ever was penned by man and adopted as a funda- 
mental law — will prove in the end to be sufficient for our 



382 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

purposes, if we can invoke, as doubtless we can, the coopera- 
tion of the States on sensible lines. I think we are going to 
find that possible in the spirit which, I may say without 
invidious implication, is present here to-night — the spirit 
of State pride — which believes that there is nothing that 
the State cannot accomplish when it attempts to do so, even 
though it is willing to receive such aid as the general welfare 
clause of the Constitution will enable the general Govern- 
ment to give it. 

The Bishop referred to prejudices that existed against 
Texas in those early days of the Republic before we knew 
what Texas was, but we know now, Bishop, and you don't 
find any such reference or criticism in the conventions of the 
Episcopal Church and the House of Bishops. You have 
not only been teaching them, but you in your own person 
and character have been furnishing an example to them and 
to all Texas as well. 

The truth is, my dear friends, that the United States in 
one sense has contracted to a degree that our forefathers 
never in their wildest dreams imagined. You are nearer 
to Washington to-day in Dallas than New York was to Wash- 
ington in the early days of the Republic. Your newspapers 
and your press, of which the Bishop has spoken so highly, 
and justly I doubt not — I congratulate you on your excep- 
tional press, which puts you in touch with the center of the 
nation at Washington so far as the Government is concerned, 
with the markets of the world in London and New York, 
and wherever the standard of prices is set. The railroads 
put you in actual communication in so short a time that we 
all seem now to be one State rather than forty-six different 
States. 

W T e have been breeding to a type in America, and what 
has struck me in going all over the United States is that we 
are all Americans, that we do not differ in our general mode 
of thought; we do not even differ in our fashions — the 
ladies know in Texas and California within the time that it 
takes the express to take a bonnet from New York to Cali- 



AND STATE PAPERS 383 

fornia what the change is, and the change is made, and you 
generous husbands in Texas know it, just as well as I do. 

We are getting closer and closer together, and I thank God 
that it is so, because with our aims more alike, with our 
inspirations the same, with our object clearly defined before 
us of the elevation of the individual in connection with 
material prosperity, it seems to me that there is nothing that 
we may not accomplish, because we are engaged in what, for 
lack of a better term I take from the football language — we 

. DO 

are engaged in team work. 

Now, you might think that what I have said would demon- 
strate the lack of necessity for the President to travel around 
the country; that he ought to gather all the information that 
there is, because we are all alike and we are all working 
toward the same end, by sitting in Washington and getting 
it that way; but I venture to think that there is something 
in the personal touch between those to whom authority is 
delegated and those who delegate it that means much for 
both, certainly for the person who has for the time being to 
exercise the responsibility of executing what he understands 
to be the mandate of the people. I believe that I myself 
can see from the trip which I have thus far taken, the value of 
coming into contact with the people in all the different parts 
of the United Slates. I have not had presented in exactly 
the same forcible eloquent way the needs of any particular 
section with as much persuasiveness as the Bishop has put 
forth that which the State of Texas looks for. I have been 
able, however, to gather, in every part of the country which 
I have visited, the general needs of each section, what the 
people there are thinking about, what they are hoping for, 
and what they are entitled to. I do hot wish to say that 
those two things differ, but thev sometimes differ in the 
matter of time when they are to receive what they are asking 
for. 

I heard the Bishop speak with great pleasure of that which 
you are laboring for in Texas — that of unity and an 
appreciation of the man, no matter what his politics are. I 



384- PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

believe that that is true the country ove». I think party ties 
are not quite so binding as they used to be. I think the 
bitterness of political discussion is by no means what it was 
in years past. The truth is, if you want to be an optimist, 
if you want to be happy, you must study the facts with 
respect to our past political history, and I am sure that we 
can all trace steps of improvement so marked that we shall 
find ourselves standing with the good Bishop in believing 
that the things here are far better than they ever were before, 
and that the things to come will continue to improve in the 
same measure. 

My friends, I am going to say good night and good-bye. 
I am going to say to you what comes out of my heart — that 
I thank you for your very cordial reception. I know it is 
cordial, I know it is sincere, and you can't help it because 
I can see it in your faces. Of course, it is rendered to the 
Chief Magistrate of the nation which you love as true Ameri- 
cans, but nevertheless it is sweet for the time being to be the 
recipient of that expression of love and patriotism. 



XLVI 
ADDRESS AT THE COLISEUM, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

(OCTOBER 25, 1909) 

Governor Hadley, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

IF YOU will give me a little quiet and a little time, I will 
bring that voice back from Texas. 

It is a great pleasure to meet the people of St. Louis in 
this magnificent structure. I feel somewhat at home here, 
because I attempted to address an audience before it had 
a roof on it. 

I am glad to meet here the distinguished Chief Executive 
of the State of Missouri, and to congratulate the State on 
having not only those great qualities and opportunities and 
resources which he has described, but also on having such 
a Governor. 

We are on the eve of a great journey down the Mississippi 
River, and cursed be he who calls it a junket! It has refer- 
ence, as the Governor says, to the problem of transportation 
by railway and waterway. It is, however, only a part of a 
still greater movement inaugurated by Theodore Roosevelt, 
and called by him properly the conservation of our national 
resources. You in the Mississippi Valley are especially 
interested in that part of the conservation that looks to the 
improvement of inland waterways; but you are not lacking 
in that broad national view that takes in the necessities and 
the crying necessities of other parts of the Union. The 
conservation includes, first — and that you are directly inter- 
ested in — the preservation of our forests because their 
relation to navigable streams and non-navigable streams 
has been directly traced by scientific men; the prevention of 
floods, the prevention of droughts, the prevention of the 

385 



386 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

rosion of the soil and the transportation on your Father 
of Waters of the farm products of Ohio and Missouri and 
Iowa to the delta at the mouth of the Mississippi. The 
part that the United States as a government can claim in 
this conservation of our resources has not been definitely 
settled, and it is not likely to be until all the phases of the 
problem are presented for solution. It is certain that the 
United States has the right to deal with the land which it 
owns in such a way as to conduce to the general welfare; 
md therefore that it owes a duty to the people with reference 
to the forest lands that it owns to preserve them and develop 
them as far as possible, to make them useful with reference 
to our water supply. 

But the Government owns only about one-fourth of all 
ihe forest lands of the United States. Those other lands 
nre in States, and we must look to the State governments to 
follow the example of the Federal Government and use all 
the power possible to preserve those forests from fire and 
from such denudation as shall destroy their water-equalizing 
quality throughout the country. The United States has been 
most bounteous and generous in the sale and disposition of 
the public lands, and we could point out, if Ave were hyper- 
critical, the waste and undue generosity with which we have 
parted with those lands. But in doing so we are apt to 
forget the condition of the country that led to that generous 
policy, and we are apt to ignore the enormous progress that 
has been made in the country by the carrying out of that gen- 
erous policy. Therefore, without any tears for what has been 
done in the past, we can take our stand now on the present 
conditions and say that a time has come for the inauguration 
of a new policy »with reference to disposing of the lands 
that remain to the United States. 

There would seem to be no reason why we should 
change the mode of disposing of agricultural land; but 
there are certain kinds of lands that modern progress 
shows have an element in them that requires us in theii 
future disposition to be most careful. There are the 



AND STATE PAPERS 387 

mineral lands, of which we have disposed of millions of 
acres as agricultural lands, and yet they have enriched their 
present owners by the treasures under the soil. There 
is no reason now why we should not separate the surface of 
the land and its internal contents, its mineral contents in the 
disposition, so that a man may settle land as agricultural 
land and cultivate it as such and not become the owner of 
the coal or minerals which lie below the surface and of which 
no one has cognizance at present. That applies to coal 
land and to oil land and applies to phosphate land, which 
contains the element by which other soil can be made pro- 
ductive. 

Then there has developed in the last decade an enormous 
power available for all sorts of manufacture and for trans- 
portation as well, in electricity. That electricity can be 
most cheaply produced by water power. A great many sites 
have been disposed of to private corporations that are now 
pursuing a course with reference to the development of those 
powers that ought to be encouraged; and it is quite probable 
that when they come to sell thai power the sovereign power 
of the State may step in to regulate the rate at which they 
dispose of that power to other individuals. Meantime there 
remains in the ownership of the Government enough power 
sites over which the Government may retain control by the 
disposition through conditional deeds or leases or some other 
form of conditional disposition, so that the rates can be 
directly regulated through the ownership by the Govern- 
ment of those existing power sites. There will then be a 
number of power sites absolutely owned by private individ- 
uals, a number controlled by the States, and still more owned 
by the Government under the character of title which I have 
defined, and we may rest assured that under that arrange- 
ment monopoly can not possess itself of all the power sites 
in the country. 

And now I come to the subject of waterways. We have 
done a great deal in this country in the improvement of 
waterways, and we have spent a great deal of money. I 



388 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

am not criticising the methods then pursued. We were 
growing. We had a great many things to do, and the first 
money that was expended ought to have been expended in the 
development of our harbors on the seacoast. We have spent 
a good deal of money in the inland waterways. I don't 
think it has been spent as much to a good purpose as it would 
have been had we adopted some other theory and some 
other method, but I am not here to criticise the past, and I 
think that a great deal could probably be said in defense of 
the economy that has been pursued in that matter. But I 
do think we now have reached a time in the history of the 
development of our waterways when a new method ought 
to be adopted. Now, I would like to clear away a good many 
suppositions that I am afraid have lodged in some minds. 
This improvement of waterways, the improvement by 
the irrigation of arid and sub-arid lands, and all this con- 
servation of resources is not for the purpose of distributing 
"pork" to every part of the country. Every measure that 
is to be taken up is to be adopted on the ground that it is 
to be useful to the country at large and not on the ground 
that it is going to send certain Congressmen back to Congress, 
or on the ground that it is going to make a certain part of 
the country prosperous during the expenditure of that money. 
If that is the principle — the one which I deprecate — that 
is to obtain, then I am in favor of going along in the same 
old way we have gone on before. The method I am in 
favor of is this: That we should take up every compre- 
hensive project on its merits, and we should determine, by 
all the means at our command, whether the country in which 
that project is to be carried out is so far developed as to 
justify the expenditure of a large sum in carrying out the 
project, and whether the project will be useful when done. 
When you have determined that on the general principle 
of good to the entire country, then I am in favor of doing 
that work as rapidly as it can be done, and I am in favor of 
issuing bonds to do it. And if it shall turn out that some 
part of the country is linked to a particular project by reason 



AND STATE PAPERS 389 

of eloquent and large words and a general lively imagination 
that is not sustained by the facts of cold investigation, then 
that part of the country must wait until it can grow up 
to that project and that project come to it. 

I am not minimizing the difficulties that are going; to arise 
in selecting what has to be done or in determining the order 
in which those projects are to be carried out. I know I 
value more intensely than I ever did in my life the interest 
and local patriotism that we find all over the United States; 
but we can not trust that in a plan of improvement which if 
carried on without sanity and without a knowledge of the 
good that is to come from it will bankrupt the Government. 
Now there is a proposition that we issue $500,000,000 of 
bonds or a billion of bonds for waterways, and then that we 
just cut that up and apportion a part to the Pacific, a part to 
the Atlantic, a part to the Mississippi, a part to the Missouri 
and a part to the Ohio. I am opposed to it because it not only 
smells of the "pork barrel," but it will be the "pork barrel." 
Let every project stand on its own bottom. Let it prove 
itself by means of its friends and by means of those who 
know whether it is to be profitable or not, and then enter 
upon it, but don't let us in the enthusiasm of vague declara- 
tion and eloquence embark on a plan that will reflect no 
credit on our business common sense and will only display 
the seamy side of that local patriotism which united together 
makes up our grand Americanism. 

And now, my friends, I have subjected you long enough 
to the croak of a crow, and I am going to ask you to excuse 
me from speaking further other than to say to you that I 
have had great pleasure in standing before this magnificent 
audience of St. Louisans and Missourians, of Congressmen 
and of Governors, and it makes my heart well up with patriot- 
igu to look into your faces and find here in the center of the 
pKintry the same spirit of determination to overcome all 
obstacles which are between us and higher living and greater 
prosperity that I have found from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
Ocean and from Canada to the Gulf. 



XLVII 

REMARKS AT THE WATERWAYS CONVENTION 
HELD IN THE ATHENEUM, NEW ORLEANS, LA. 

(OCTOBER 30, 1909) 

Governor Sanders, Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Water- 
ways Convention, Ladies of NetD Orleans: 
I MENTION you last because you are the most important. 
I am delighted to be present (you see we adopt in 
our administration the Roosevelt policies to the full) and 
to head the highly honorable delegation that has come 
from St. Louis to the Gulf. We have passed through all 
the dangers of the navigation of the river, and they are not 
confined to the shoals, sand-banks and the bends, and we 
are here without the loss of a single man. There are some 
few of us who have braved the whole way, and I hesitate to 
speak of those who resorted to the humiliating device of 
taking land transportation to get here. I hope that will 
be suppressed in the minutes of this meeting. When "Uncle 
Joe" addresses your honorable body, don't ask him where 
he left the river and where he got back to it. 

We were honored on our flagship by the presence of the 
Governor of Louisiana and the Governor of Mississippi. 
We needed them in our business, for we did not know where 
we might be thrown ashore on those high banks that frowned 
down upon us as we rode the river, and you can see from the 
eloquent tribute and words and kindly, affectionate tone of 
the Governor how we fooled him. ,! a 

But, jesting aside, my dear friends, we are delighted t*Pt 
be here, first, because we are reasonable men who know 
a good thing when we see it, and any man who doesn't wel- 
come an opportunity to come to New Orleans is lacking in 

390 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 391 

all that goes to make up a respectable man; and secondly, 
we are glad to be here because our coining indicates what 
we hope may be an epoch in the change of the character 
of transportation in this country. Do not misunderstand 
me. I do not think that we are going to fill the bosom of 
the Mississippi with barges and ocean steamers to-morrow 
morning. The change which is bound to be effected with 
respect to that stream will come gradually. It will come 
with the demand that is certainly growing for an improve- 
ment in our transportation and the cheapening of that kind 
of transportation, to wit, bulky merchandise that ought to be 
carried more cheaply than it is to-day. 

This trip has been illuminating to many of us, not so 
much in offering a solution to the problems presented in 
trying to develop the Mississippi and other rivers for that 
kind of transportation which will be most beneficial to the 
country, but it has been illuminating in showing the difficul- 
ties that we have to meet and overcome in order that those 
rivers shall occupy their proper place in transportation. 

Now. there are a good many things that come to you when 
you sit down and think and devote attention to a problem. 
If your mind is directed toward railroad transportation and 
the building up of I he country by that means, and if public 
attention is taken off rivers and they are allowed to become 
nothing but sewers, it is not in human nature that the prob- 
lems presented by the rivers shall receive the attention 
tvhich will insure the solution of those problems. 

We have seen human ingenuity turned and developed to 
the highest degree in the growth of our railroad transporta- 
tion and the economy in the conduct of railroads. But the 
condition of our rivers, the apparently hopeless task of 
making them useful, has turned the public attention from 
tiflku. and there isn't, in reference to river construction or 
im-r navigation, that improvement that we ought to have 
had in the last forty years. I ask you what progress has 
been made in the last thirty or forty years in reference to 
river navigation ? 



392 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Now, we have reached a point where we are bound to 
use those because the amount that is required to be carried 
will necessitate it. In Germany and in foreign countries, 
to which we are pointed to show what can be done with 
river navigation, the Government exercises control and 
says that with respect to the rates certain of them shall 
be such on the river that bulky merchandise must go that 
way. What do we do? Why, we say to the railroads, 
"If you will only arrange your rates so as to compete with 
the river, we will permit you to make them so as to drive the 
river out of business." Now, that is what has been done, 
and while the river has served the purpose of regulating rates 
to a certain extent in reducing them, it nevertheless has 
not exercised that power and that influence that it might 
if it were actually used for the purpose. 

The Secretary of War yesterday suggested — although 
he is as far from a government-ownership man as possible 
— that perhaps it might be well to let the Government 
experiment a bit in risking some capital to put a few lines 
on the river to try and see whether something cannot be done 
with that business. In Kansas City they are investing 
money to-day to try it on the Missouri River. And the 
question whether we can meet the point that you must 
have some means of gathering the business and getting 
it on to the boat in order to compete with the railroad, will 
not give rise to the suggestion that the Government might 
establish stations along the river for the purpose of housing 
the merchandise to be sent by the river. All those are 
suggestions that will have to be worked out before we reach 
a satisfactory conclusion. 

Now, in St. Louis I said I thought that we ought to 
satisfy ourselves with respect to a great improvement of 
the river, thai it would be useful before we went ah^fc 
and invested all the money necessary, and that then w*e 
ought to invest that money quickly and issue bonds for the 
purpose, because that is the most rapid way. Now I think — 
at least the great weight of opinion is — that we have solved 



AND STATE PAPERS 393 

the question of the navigation of the Ohio River for the 
purpose of improving the trade of that river; and if you 
are going to make the Mississippi a valuable stream, you 
must depend on the feeders to that stream, of which the 
Ohio to-day is far and away the most important. 

Now, you say I come from Ohio, and that that is the 
reason I think so. Well, perhaps it is, but nevertheless 
there is a report in which the cost of that improvement has 
been gone into detail, and the engineers have approved it 
to the extent of nine feet of water — slack water, throughout 
the whole year, and it will cost $63,000,000. Now I am in 
favor of going ahead with that which has been determined 
to be useful, and issuing bonds and building those improve- 
ments, because they have shown by the improvements already 
erected that the solution there has been reached that it is 
practical. I am not in favor of delaying the Mississippi 
River improvement until the Ohio River improvement is 
completed, but I am in favor of finding out what you ought 
to do in the Mississippi River succinctly and knowing what it 
will cost before you go in and spend all your money. The 
use of a river for navigation is going to determine a 
good deal of what is needed in it for better navigation. 
That is the reason why the Kansas City method is a 
good method and I am hopeful that in some way or other 
you can increase the amount of business on the Mississippi 
River. 

When I spoke of the Ohio River to a gentleman most 
interested in the Mississippi, he said, "Oh, well, pshaw; 
you have got a great coal company up at the top of that 
river, and it furnishes the business.". Well, of course it 
does, and that is the reason why we are in favor of the 
improvement. It is demonstrated that the river will carry 
that coal, and we have the coal to carry. And so it is 
with respect to the Lakes. They have the iron ore to carry, 
and its value has been determined time and time again. Now 
you improve the Ohio River, and we will give you more and 
'more trade for the Mississippi, and in that way you will 



394 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

learn and develop, by investigation and actual experiment, 
what is needed in the Mississippi. 

I have been delighted to read, because I had otherwise 
a different idea, that the Mississippi has been improved and 
improved greatly toward the lower end; that the Mississippi 
River Commission working with Louisiana and Mississippi 
has developed a system of levees that are wonderful to save 
a State nearly forty thousand square miles, useful and 
most productive for agricultural purposes, and that at the 
same time they have gone on and have discovered means 
of stopping the sloughing off at the interior of the bends; that 
by experiment they have found what w r ill stick and what 
will not stick, and that we are making progress in spite of 
the fact that the progress is not what it ought to be. The 
Mississippi River Commission says that in order to carry 
on even this they ought to have $2,000,000 more a year, and 
certainly Congress ought to be ashamed not to give it to them. 

I am very sure that the Speaker of the House, who although 
he says he is but one member of the House, nevertheless 
under the customs which have grown up is more or less a 
Speaker for the House, is charged with a deep responsibility 
in regard to this great question; and that he is working as 
hard as he can to reach a just solution. It is a great deal 
when your movement has been carried to a point where you 
command the attention of those in authority to listen to 
what you have to say in your favor, and that is what you 
have done. You have brought it to a point where, to 
use a colloquial expression, we must come down to brass 
tacks, and where mere general oratory in favor of a water- 
way does not suffice. It is the question, what can you do, 
how much will it cost, how long will it take, and what will 
it result in ? Now, when you address yourselves, this body 
of men, and treat it as a mere question of transportation on 
a profitable basis, I have not the slightest doubt that you 
will reach a solution which will appeal to those who have 
the responsibility of voting the money for the Government, 
and that you will get what you desire in a measurable time. 



AND STATE PAPERS 395 

I thank you, my friends, from the bottom of my heart 
for this cordial reception. I thank the Business Men's 
League of St. Louis for giving me an opportunity to take 
part in this historical progress down the Father of Waters, 
and I thank them for delivering us into the hospitable arms 
and the loving embrace of the Governor of Louisiana and his 
constituents; and finally I have to advise those who have not 
experienced the delightful hospitality of New Orleans that 
they are now sitting in a frame of gems, and that if 
they will continue here for two or three days in the beauty 
of the women and their charming qualities, they will almost 
forget the Mississippi River. 



XLVIII 

ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS OF THE STATE 

INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE AT 

COLUMBUS, MISS. 

(NOVEMBER 2, 1909) 

Young Ladies: 

IT is a great privilege to address you. Your being 
here and the character of the institution and of the 
education that you are receiving and the results to be accom- 
plished by that, are all calculated to inspire in one enthusiasm 
and sympathy with the work which is going on. I have 
a lot of maxims and a lot of principles that I would like to 
advance to young ladies in your situation. I wish that 
every woman in the world was so situated that she did not 
think it was necessary for her to marry if she did not want 
to. Now that is a proposition that I am prepared to defend 
against all comers. . I am the last one to take a position 
against that old doctrine of the common law that there ought 
to be nothing to interfere with matrimony. But I would have 
the matter so arranged that the women when they come 
to decide and make their choice shall have a full and 
free choice, and that can only be reached when they are put 
in a situation where that which they choose is not a life which 
they select because it is better than some that they expect, 
but a life that they look forward to with unmixed happiness. 
Seriously speaking, I think the most important education 
that we have is the education which now I am glad to 
say is being accepted as the proper one, the one which ought 
to be most widely diffused, that industrial, vocational educa- 
tion which puts young men and young women in a position 
from which they can by their own efforts work themselves 

396 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 397 

to independence. And I am glad to know that that principle 
obtains here in its best sense, and I am glad to congratulate 
these young women on the opportunity which this great 
institution affords them to carve out their future and their 
own happiness. 

I know it is generally supposed that those who inherit 
wealth are in the best situation for a future happy life — 
I mean in this world — but I venture to think that the best 
legacy that can be left to a young man is a good education 
and a good character. The necessity that he is under 
of getting out to hustle is an advantage which he does not 
appreciate when he is going through the process, but after 
he has won success and looks back and compares his life with 
that of the men who, when he entered life had money and 
means to support themselves, and enjoy themselves, he will 
be convinced of the great advantage that fate gave him 
when it did not give him a fortune or a competence. The 
same thing is true with respect to the young women who 
are given a fair chance in life to earn and carve out 
their own futures. The great trouble has been that we 
have not given the women a fair show. "We have not 
opened all the avenues to livelihood which they are quite 
as well able to fill, and in certain respects better able to fill, 
than we are. 

I am not a rabid suffragist. The truth is I am not in favor 
of suffrage for women until I can be convinced that all the 
women desire it; and when they desire it I am in favor of 
giving it to them, and when they desire it they will get it too. 
But I do believe that one of the advantages of giving them 
that kind of influence will be more certainly to open the 
avenues of self-support to them than heretofore has been 
done. The great principle of popular government is that 
every class in the community, assuming that it has intelligence 
enough to know its own interest, can be better trusted to look 
after that interest than any other class, however altruistic 
that class. While husbands respect the wishes of wives, 
if they are good husbands, and know what is good for 



398 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

them, I don't know that they always manifest the utmost 
liberality with reference to the treatment of unmarried 
women. What we are bound to have in the future through 
influences working, the effect of which we can see, and the 
growth into the success of which we can anticipate, is that 
women are going to be given greater independence in the 
matter of earning their livelihood, and that then they will 
reach the point, which I do not think they now have reached, 
of regarding an education without a competence as a greater 
benefit than one with the means of support. 

I shall be glad that I shall not have any property to leave 
to my boys, of whom I have two, but only a good character 
and a pride in themselves and a good education; but for 
my daughter I am going to scrape together as much as I can 
give her and as good an education as I can so that she shall 
take in the lesson which I first sought to announce as the 
text of my discourse, that she marry only when she chooses 
to marry and not because of circumstances. 

And now, my dear young ladies, I am delighted to have 
met you. You get a man who lives beyond fifty and he has 
certain views of life that he reasons about in his own mind 
and every once in a while he finds an opportunity to give 
expression to them, and that is what you have offered me 
this morning, and hence you have had to endure this speech. 



XLIX 

SPEECH AT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 
BANQUET, BIRMINGHAM, ALA. 

(NOVEMBER 2, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Senator Johnston, Governor Comer, 

Gentlemen of Birmingham and Citizens of Alabama: 

WHEN your distinguished Chairman arose first he 
advised us that there was to be no reference to politics 
and that the time of each speaker was limited. He, however, 
is a toastmaster and, having made the regulation, is entitled 
to suspend it in his own case, and I make no argument to that 
at all. It reminds me of an answer made by my friend Judge 
Howland once, when introduced by a toastmaster whom he 
called a "roastmaster," with an introduction that took off 
some of the Judge's peculiarities in advance. He said he 
had no objection at all because he was reminded of the story 
of the gentleman who wandered into a saloon in Nevada 
where a game of poker was going on, and as he sat looking 
over the game, he saw the dealer transfer four aces from the 
bottom of the pack into his own hand. He nudged another 
gentleman who was sitting by him looking over the game. 
And said, "Did you see that?" "See what," said the 
man. "See that man take four aces off the bottom of the 
pack?" His neighbor turned to him and said, "Hell, 
isn't it his deal?" I am entirely willing to recognize the 
right of the toastmaster himself to discuss politics and 
exclude it in the rest of us. I can not, however, refrain 
from certain observations upon the peculiarities of 
Alabama politics, and the position of governor in the 
State. There seems to attach to it a certain necessity 
for a purgatory after the term, and I am not at all sure 

399 



400 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that it is not a good arrangement, and that it does not make 
for excellent senators. 

I have listened with a great deal of interest to the state- 
ments as to the growth of Birmingham. Those of us who 
do not live in Birmingham associate it with three or four 
cities of this country. Perhaps you will decline to accept 
the association, but as I am a man up a tree, so to speak. I 
can insist upon the similarity — Birmingham, Atlanta, 
Pittsburg, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and Los Angeles 
are types of a growing prosperity and business development 
that one who swings around the country as I have done feels 
the greatest national pride in dwelling upon. They are in 
the first class. They have a public spirit and a determina- 
tion to succeed that develop into — I had almost called it a 
chimney draft and take you off your feet. There seems to 
be no thing that can limit their growth. You have something 
substantial and tangible at your doors upon which you can 
base your future with even more certainty than these other 
cities that have developed so much. 

My friend on the right, who is making Republican voters, 
has demonstrated that you have a wealth here that is hardly 
equalled in the world, and I am glad that it is so, glad that 
you have caught the spirit of your opportunities and are 
determined to force them to a point where you shall make 
yourselves certainly the Pittsburg of the South and one of the 
great industrial centers of the world. Your Governor has 
been good enough to suggest that a desire for arbitrary rule 
is not confined to governors and that it affects the head of 
the nation as well — the temporary head of the nation — and 
he has made suggestions as to what I might do with the 
vacancies that will await me when I get back to Washington. 
I thought, that his suggestion with reference to the associate 
justiceship was much too indefinite, and that when he made 
his definite suggestion it received a very much heavier 
approval. If he will also name his associate justice from 
the lawyers of Alabama, then he will be really helping me 
with respect to both offices. 



AND STATE PAPERS 401 

What one sees in Birmingham one also sees in a less 
degree in every town and State of the United States. It is a 
spirit of progress and determination to overcome the obstacles 
that present themselves which I do not think is unjust to call 
typically American. I haven't found a corner of this country 
where there is anything but optimism and contentment, 
anything but a request that they be given an equal chance 
in the race and a determination to come out first. I can 
never make a speech on an occasion like this in dealing with 
our progress as a nation without referring to the fact that has 
impressed itself on me every time I have stepped onto the 
platform, in a little town in the Far West or in a large 
city like this, and that is the homogeneity of the American 
people, their having become a type different from that of any 
other nation, and a type that illustrates all we take pride 
in, the progressiveness and the courage and the enterprise 
which have made this country what it is, and which are 
going to carry it to a development that even we with our 
optimism can hardly reach in our imagination. And what 
I long for and hope for and believe is that in that material 
progress we are not going to lose sight of the fact that unless 
we accompany it with an elevation of the individual, with 
an elevation of our business standards, with the making of 
the character of each citizen better and higher and increasing 
our moral standards, the material progress will not be worth 
anything to the nation. 

I think that in the last ten years and under the influence of 
Theodore Roosevelt, we have had called to our attention 
the dangers into which we might be led by an undue desire 
to increase our material prosperity at the cost of honesty in 
business and freedom from monopoly and greed with 
reference to our corporations and business generally. And 
now thai we are about to resume a prosperity which will grow 
as I believe in the next four or five years to a point never 
before seen in this country or in the world, it is wise that we 
should take into consideration the necessity that we shall 
not let it come except on condition that it comes with a 



402 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

preservation of equality of opportunity to American citizens 
and the bettering of our business integrity and the restraint 
of all those things that tend to monopoly and corruption in 
politics and in business. 

Now, the Chairman said I must keep out of politics, and I 
will because I believe I am speaking a doctrine to which 
everybody subscribes, whether he be Republican or Demo- 
crat. I am glad to be in Birmingham because it is in the 
South. It is said to be cosmopolitan, and it has attracted by 
reason of its great business opportunities many from the 
North and other places, and yet it is in Alabama and it is in 
the South and you would not have me say that you are not a 
Southern community as you are. 

I am deeply interested in the development of the South 
and in her obtaining a share of the national prosperity which 
came so slowly to her in the last three decades. Birmingham 
is leading the South in that direction, and she, because of her 
cosmopolitan character, because she is becoming more and 
more aware of how close she is to the North and how close 
she is to the entire country in a business way, is influencing 
the South as the North is influenced toward her to believe 
that this country is ceasing to have sections, not ceasing to 
have traditions, and there is a definition that I want to make 
as emphatic as possible. I would not have the South give 
up a single one of her noble traditions. I would not have 
her abate a single bit of the deep pride she feels in all the 
great heroes who represented her in that awful struggle 
between the North and the South. I would have the whole 
country know, as I believe the South is growing herself to 
know, that it is possible to preserve all those traditions intact 
and have a warm and deeply loyal love for the old flag to which 
she has come back, and to know that the North respects her 
for those traditions she preserves and does not ask her to 
discard one, but only wishes to unite with her in the benefits 
of a common country and of a sympathy and association 
between the peoples of the two sections that will certainly 
lead us on to a greater and greater future. 



REMARKS AT THE STATE FAIR GROUNDS, 
MACON, GA. 

(NOVEMBER 4, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of Georgia: 

I AM glad to be hack in Georgia. I was a Georgian when 
I was elected President of the United States. They 
went through a preliminary canter just a year ago to-day at 
the polls, but the real election under the Constitution, as your 
jurist Senator will tell you. was when I was within the pre- 
cincts of Georgia, and, therefore, for the time being subject 
to the Georgian laws, with an allegiance to Georgia, and, 
I am glad to say, was a Georgian in spirit and in heart. I 
say so because I came under the delightful influence of 
Georgian hospitality. I was permitted to work out my own 
way with a considerateness that I greatly appreciated. I had 
been engaged in a contest and a controversy that made me 
wish to lie down for a time, and you permitted me to enjoy 
that leisure and that rest without disturbing it, but only by 
your soothing hospitality you enabled me to recover again 
the strength I needed to meet the responsibilities of the office, 
for which you had been somewhat innocent in choosing me. 

I am greatly indebted to your distinguished Governor, 
to Senator Bacon, and to your Congressman, Mr. Bartlett, 
for their representing you in taking me into this beautiful city 
of Macon, and I may add in giving me a Georgian breakfast. 
It is an admirable meal - one attractive to me in a way that 
1 hale to admit— but it isn't the best preparation for an 
oration. 

My friends, the note that will rise up in my voice, and 
which I can not restrain, is one of congratulation to the 

403 



404 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

people of Georgia upon the condition in which they find 
themselves this year and this decade under the Providence 
of God. It is, as your Chairman has said, enough to make 
one stop and think when you realize that out of your cotton 
crop alone you will receive in gold more than double all the 
gold that will be mined in the United States during a year. 

Now, I sincerely hope that you will spend that to the best 
advantage. I know from looking about through the town 
of Macon that you are spending it to make your homes more 
attractive, and to educate the next generation that is coming 
on to uphold the high traditions of Georgia, and to maintain 
its loyalty and support to the National Government. 

I have had the privilege of travelling now some 12,000 
miles across the United States, down her western border 
along her southern border, until I reached home in Georgia. 
And while I would not detract from your natural State pride, 
and from that feeling, which I know exists, because I have 
a Georgian, Capt. Archibald W. Butt, as my military aide, 
that the Georgians are just the best people in the world, 
nevertheless I want to admit to you that if I were to be put 
blindfolded, without knowing exactly where I was, before 
this magnificent audience, it would be a little difficult for 
me to distinguish between you and some of the audiences that 
I meet in Ohio. You may not regard that as a compliment, 
but you must know that I come from Ohio, and the resem- 
blance I like to emphasize, because that is the text of what 
I would preach both in Georgia and in Ohio. 

We have our differences. We differ because the sun 
differs a little bit in its method of showing its love to you in 
Georgia and to us in Ohio. We differ because you can 
raise cotton and we have to get along with corn and wheat. 
But in the essential, in the aspirations that we have, in our 
training, in our moral standards, in our political ideals and 
in our determination to make our condition better with 
reference to each individual who comes to be part of our 
people and part of our government, our aims are alike, and 
we are alike. 



AND STATE PAPERS 405 

Now, you differ from some of us because we have benighted 
Democrats in Ohio. You differ from us in your view of some 
political principles. I do not care if you do. If you will 
only give me such a warmth of reception as you have this 
morning. I can wipe out the memory of all those principles for 
the time being and rejoice that you have taken me in as a 
brother. The truth is, a wholesome difference of opinion 
with reference to economic and political principles is essential 
that we reach the truth. If we all agreed — well, there 
wouldn't be any fun in politics to begin with; if we all 
agreed, it would indicate an apathy and an indifference to 
principle that would mean that the country was going down- 
ward instead of upward. 

The independence of though! that we seek to cherish 
here must lead to differences of opinion, maintained by 
argument and voted into the ballot box, and then we all 
acknowledge acquiescence in the result of that ballot box. 

We have been trained a thousand years through our 
English ancestry in the self-restraint that is absolutely nec- 
essary to the success of popular government, and in that 
qualitv of being good losers that enabled us to live happily 
and contentedly under a government selected by a majority 
of which we are not a part. And the same self-restraint 
teaches the majority that rules that the limitations of 
the Constitution, and not only the limitations of law and the 
Constitution, but limitations of decency, limitations of 
patriotism, arc as strong on the majority as it is possible that 
law should be. In other words, the power that is enjoyed is 
the power to be exercised only for the benefit of the people 
and the country, and not for the purpose of exalting the 
person who temporarily is vested with power to exercise it. 

I always hear, because it is pleasant and because the man 
who says it believes it, and also because it rounds a full period, 
about the power of the President of United States, and I 
doubt not that after I am out of office I shall be able to look 
back and see where I might have done things in the exercise 
of power that would have filled me with a consciousness of 



400 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

it, but I am bound to say that under existing circumstances 
the thing which impresses me most is not the power I have 
to exercise under the Constitution, but the limitations and 
restrictions to which I am subject under that instrument. 
Sometimes a man's head swells a little bit with his momentary 
authority, and he thinks that there is a good deal of the limi- 
tation of the Constitution that might have been safely 
omitted in his case. Now, here is my friend. Senator Bacon 
- he and his fellows sit up at the other end of the avenue 
and they pass on all my appointments. I could get along 
if they didn't have that power, and for the time being it seems 
to me that the country would get along a little better if they 
couldn't put their fingers in, but our forefathers builded well, 
and they knew what they were doing; and I am not in favor, 
even if it seems to me that a particular provision ought to be 
omitted, of changing the Constitution every time you run 
against the sharp edge of something that indicates that you 
are only mortal and that the forefathers in making the 
Constitution distrusted your human nature. 

My friends, that leads me up to one little sermon, and that 
is, the wisdom and necessity of following the law as it is. 
I know that sometimes in the heat and enthusiasm of reform, 
there is an impatience with legal limitations and statutes that 
seem to be directed against that reform, or to prevent its 
immediate accomplishment, such as to lead us to disregard 
it or to ignore it. I do not think, and I am sure you will 
agree with me, that that is the best way of getting rid of a 
legal limitation that interferes with progress. The best way 
is to have the people understand that that limitation ought 
to be removed, and that the statutes of our Government 
ought to conform so far as may be to our highest ideals and 
ambitions; but that the first thing that we have got to do 
after arousing the people to the necessity of change, is to 
change the law, and not rely upon the Executive himself 
to ignore the statutes and follow a law unto himself because 
it is supposed to be the law of higher morality. 

Now, that may sound like a lawyer's view. Lawyers are 



AND STATE PAPERS 407 

necessary in a community. Some of you who have paid fees 
— some of you who have lost cases in courts of justice — 
may have a different view; but as I am a member of that 
legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost stand- 
ing in it by becoming a politician, I still retain the pride of 
the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the 
lawyer that make popular government under a written 
constitution and written statutes possible, because if you 
depart in any way from the law as it is, you enter upon a 
path, which, while entirely certain for one issue in your mind 
with respect to the higher moral aim of your own soul and 
that of your fellow-citizens, nevertheless leads into a 
wilderness, and by which you cannot subsequently guide 
your steps. Therefore, lei us (irsl make the laws to accord 
to our desires and our ambitions, and then follow them. 

I have said that much because I have noticed a tendency 
among some of our best fellow-citizens to hold the Executive 
responsible for not doing a great many things in which it is the 
business of my friends in Congress, with Senator Bacon and 
Judge Bartlett, to lead the way. and for the Executive only to 
follow after they have laid down the rules. That does not 
rid the Executive of the responsibility of recommending 
changes in the law. Hut it does prevent him from going 
ahead and exercising those changes without the coordinate 
action of the legislative branch of the Government; and as 
I intend to recommend a good many measures at the next 
meeting of Congress, I have taken this method of intimating 

DO 1 

to you where the responsibility will be if those measures do 
not pass. 

My friends. I am delighted to be here. These surround- 
ings could hardly be surpassed in everything that goes to 
make up a pleasant meeting. The beautiful ladies and the 
men with shining eyes and welcoming hospitable hearts, all 
these surroundings make a man feel as if he could talk from 
now on until dewy eve. Hut I am not going to. I only 
want to say that such a meeting as this confirms me in the 
view that there is not one single reason why you should not 



408 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

feel as close to the Government at Washington, and as much 
a part of it, as any other part of the country, and that all that 
is necessary to have you understand that is to give you the 
assurance, which I am delighted to give, and which I know 
you will receive in the same spirit, that we are Americans 
all together — that you have as much right to be heard by 
me while I temporarily exercise the powers of the Chief 
Executive at Washington as any citizens in the land, and 
that it will gratify me beyond expression if through any act 
of mine or through the administration as a whole, I can have 
contributed to bring all the peoples of this country together 
in one common bond of union, and one sentiment of loyalty 
to our flag and to our country. 



LI 

SPEECH AT THE BANQUET TENDERED BY THE 

CITIZENS OF CHARLESTON, S. C, AT 

THE CHARLESTON HOTEL 

(NOVEMBER 5, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of Charleston and of South 
Carolina: 

I THANK you for your kindly welcome. It is true that 
I have been in Charleston just as often as I could come 
here. And I intend to come as often in the future as possible, 
as a private citizen or under any conditions. Now, I first 
came here because I believed Charleston to be the quickest 
way to go to the Isthmus of Panama. And I haven't changed 
my opinion about it. Having come here and having become 
acquainted with the city of Charleston and with its many 
attractions and with a good many of the interior workings of 
the city and of South Carolina, they have a fascination for 
me. I like to come here and renew those pleasurable 
experiences in the discussions that prevail between the great 
thunderers in the press. No one who understands the 
attraction of real hospitality and the friendships that one 
makes in cities like this, ever comes to Charleston but that 
he wants to come back again. 

Now, I am honored to-night by the presence of the 
Governor of your State and by that of your two Senators 
with all of whom, I am glad to say, I am on the most 
friendly personal terms. And as they cannot make any 
speeches, because I am to make the only one, that statement 
has to go down undenied. There are certain advantages in 
being the only speaker and there are certain disadvantages. 

409 



410 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

When one is making three speeches a day and is searching 
for subjects upon which to talk, it is of much assistance 
if other men say something so that one can find 
suggestion in their ingenuity, and that is missing to-night 
for me. Last night at Savannah I had it in full and 
rich measure. Some one has suggested that I would 
be able to continue my remarks to-day without having com- 
pleted all the subjects that were touched upon. 

There is one gentleman not here to-night whom I could 
wish to see, and that is your active, bright, tender-hearted 
and most able Congressman. I sincerely hope that he is 
recovering his health completely. He has taken a stay at 
Fort Bayard, in New Mexico, and that has worked such 
wonders with other friends of mine similarly afflicted that 
I am very hopeful he will be restored to you with all his 
strength and with all his usefulness. 

Inasmuch as nobody has been called upon to suggest any 
subject for discussion, I cannot think of anything to talk 
about except that which has been present in my thoughts 
every moment for the last fifty-five days — my present trip. 
It perhaps needs an explanation. I was invited to go to 
the Yukon Exposition at Seattle and I agreed to go. That 
is, I agreed to go if Congress made sufficient provision for 
my travelling expenses. And Congress did. And so the 
country had this journey put upon it. But the moment that 
I accepted that invitation to go to the Exposition, the places 
which were to be included in the going and coming began to 
increase in number by reason of the hospitable invitations 
from a number of places and also by the fact that I seemed to 
be useful in connection with state fairs and other enterprises 
that needed encouragement — one of which was the deepen- 
ing of the Mississippi River — and before I got through, the 
itinerary had zigzagged across the country so as to aggregate 
about thirteen thousand miles. 

I have had a good many people, especially as I drew near 
the close of the journey, express sympathy for me as to the 
endurance test I have gone through. Well, the question is 



AND STATE PAPERS 411 

one of temperament; one of taste and possibly one of dis- 
position. If you like people and like to meet them, and if 
you have an interest in studying the differences and the 
similarities of the people of the United States, then such a 
trip as I have undertaken and have gone through with nearly 
to completion is something which any one having those tastes 
would enjoy most highly. I can say truly that I have 
enjoyed every moment of the trip. And I think I can affirm 
that the people generally in all parts of the country are in 
favor of having a President travel at least once in four years 
through the country. They are interested from curiosity 
perhaps, but also from better reasons, I think, in coming 
into personal touch with the man who for the time being 
exercises the executive authority in chief. They not only 
like to see him, but they like to hear him. I don't know 
that they pay any particular attention to his views, but they 
like to get the sound of his voice and hear something from him 
in order that they may "size up" the man who temporarily 
is at the head of the nation. 

Now, I think that that is a pretty good thing; I think 
generally that if they see the man and come into a sort of 
personal touch, they are more sympathetic with him in his 
difficulties, and I am in favor of sympathy. I am where I 
need it, and I think we can get along a good deal better where 
we understand each other and have the means of understand- 
ing each other than where the man who is acting on 
delegated authority is afar from those who have delegated him 
to act. It certainly has a most beneficial effect upon the man 
thus charged. It certainly opens his eyes and his mind 
first to inquiry in reference to the needs of the country in its 
various sections, and while, on the other hand, it puts the 
people more or less in sympathy with him as President, it 
puts him certainly quite in sympathy with sections of 
whose aspirations and needs and thoughts he may 
have heard, but he never can have had them impressed 
on him as they are when he goes into that section, into 
that State, into that district where the needs arise, and 



iU PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

where ambition is stirring the people up to make_complaints 
or claims. 

There are times in such a trip when a man feels as if he 
were on a wild goose chase and not accomplishing much. 
Those times are usually about five o'clock in the morning, 
when he is waked up by an earnest crowd, anxious to have 
him turn out, although he may have gone to bed at one or 
two o'clock, and make a speech. They can not understand 
why he should stay in when he is purposely on a trip to show 
himself. 

It has been said that this is a bad precedent, that the 
present incumbent has been blessed with a digestion and 
sufficient physical endurance to enable him to make the trip, 
but that by going about and making a precedent those who 
follow me and who may not be so blessed may find imposed 
upon them a burden which it is bad for the public to have 
their Chief Executive labor under. Well, perhaps that is 
so. I would not limit the Presidency, certainly, by a civil- 
service examination as to digestion and physical endurance; 
but each President, I think, can control that matter largely 
for himself, and is not governed by the precedents set by 
other Presidents. The truth is, I don't know any President 
in my recollection who has been much embarrassed by the 
precedents set by any other President. 

There is one feature of this travelling where you use 
Sunday, because you have to, and that is that you are called 
upon to address audiences that are either in churches or in a 
state of worship, and you have to assume the character of 
a preacher. I have essayed once or twice in that direction, 
and I have been very much amused to see the comments of 
the gentlemen of the clerical profession on my failure in that 
regard. I notice that I am very subject to criticism by those 
gentlemen who preside in a sense over the Scriptures — and 
who resent any attempt to deal liberally with texts from the 
Sciij)tures. 

One of the difficulties in taking such a trip is that you lose 
track of the news. You see newspapers only occasionally, 



AND STATE PAPERS 413 

and then in such a way that you are not able to keep up with 
the issues of the day. That has some advantages, but it 
occasionally presents embarrassment. I am utterly oblivious 
to the importance and also utterly ignorant of the evidence 
with reference to the question, Which American discovered 
the pole ? I know that is not the case with anyone who has 
had the pleasure of being in Charleston for the last sixty days. 

Then, too, I have been able to avoid election troubles and 
even now have not learned all the results, because I have not 
had an opportunity to see them tabulated or stated. That, 
too, perhaps, if the elections are not satisfactory, is an advan- 
tage. One of the great pleasures of this trip, most gratifying to 
me, has been what I might almost call the fervor of the recep- 
tions that I have had throughout the States of the South. Of 
course, one in my position, and of limited political experience, 
might well be misled as to the popular expression and how 
much of it is substantial and what it means, and yet I have 
given some attention to the study of human nature and I 
think I know the Southern people, and I think I correctly 
construe what it is they have in their minds and hearts when 
they indicate to me as emphatically and sincerely as they 
do the pleasure that they have in my presence in their com- 
munities. And that is that I am not contemplating a polit- 
ical revolution; that is impossible; but only that I am seeking 
to smooth out some of the wrinkles that may perhaps have 
remained from our former differences and am trying to con- 
vince the people of the South by such means as the Executive 
has in his control of my earnest desire to make the South 
feel that it has influence at Washington, that its foremost 
men of prominence and influence are entitled to be heard, 
to be listened to — and that in dealing with the South this 
Administration looks upon it in no different sense in a 
general way than upon Ohio or Illinois or the great West. 

And now, gentlemen, I have reached the end of my 
speech. I can only close by saying that, after the very pleas- 
ant receptions I have had in the South, it is delightful to 
come to Charleston and feel that the reception here is not 



414 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

alone the reception of another Southern city, but that it is 
the reception of a city where I have so many friends already 
formed that I looked at it rather as coming to a place like 
home than to a place where I had never visited and which 
I only regarded as a part of that genial section, with its 
magnificent traditions, with its enormous possibilities, and 
with its intense loyalty. I say good-bye now. I hope to 
come again as soon as I can and I hope that Charleston will 
retain all her attractiveness; that she will lose none of those 
residences and those other structures that make her unique 
throughout the country; that she will continue to have that 
press which makes each paper so interesting in discussing 
the other. 



LII 

ADDRESS AT THE LUNCHEON TENDERED 

BY SOUTH CAROLINIANS, IN THE HOUSE OF 

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE CAPITOL, 

COLUMBIA, S. C, 

(NOVEMBER 6, 1909) 

Governor Ansel and Gentlemen of South Carolina: 

YOUR committee from Columbia called on me in 
Augusta before I had assumed the course of office, 
and were good enough to invite me to come here. I said I 
would come, and I am here. That is one promise of the 
Administration that I have redeemed. I don't claim any 
credit for it, because a man who would not come to Columbia 
when he could, and enjoy such a festivity and welcome as 
this, does not understand a good thing when he sees it. 

I am greatly honored to be received by you in this the 
House of Representatives of South Carolina in your magni- 
ficent Capitol. I am greatly honored to be received by 
your representative men of the State, not only by the private 
citizens but by the Governor, the Senators, the Chief Justice 
and your Representatives, and I appreciate it to the full. It 
is the first State in which I have been tendered a welcome 
within the capitol walls of the State, and I take it as an 
expression on your part of a desire to show that it is the 
State and the people of the State that welcome me. 

Another and most delightful feature of this reception is 
the presence of the ladies, the real pride of South Caro- 
lina. A gentleman from another part of the State, and I 
am afraid that in saying this I am betraying something that 
I ought not to say, but I can not help it, anticipating a meet- 

415 



41G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ing with me in another part of the State at some time in the 
future, said to me, "Come there and we will show you the 
prettiest women in South Carolina." I resented it, and but 
for my office and the dignity that necessarily attached to 
it, I tremble for his fate. We are verging in the right direc- 
tion. There was a time when we had banquets without 
the presence of that sex that we all love, and whose influence 
and control we all secretly recognize. Now we are letting 
them in to see the animals eat. They show that patience, 
that sweet sympathy with the selfish side of man, that toler- 
ance of those things about him that even we ourselves do not 
admire, by allowing this arrangement to continue for a while. 
But the next time I come to South Carolina I expect to dine 
with the ladies and the gentlemen. 

My friends, I am not inspired to say much to-day, because 
I feel so much more than I can say. There is something 
about South Carolina and her traditions, as I look into the 
faces of her great men and think what she has done and the 
part she has played in all the great historical crises of this 
country, that makes me take this reception from you at your 
hands with a feeling that I am honored far beyond my 
deserts. I realize that it is because I represent the whole 
Nation for the time being, and that you in your loyalty to 
the flag and country, and with the hospitality for which 
your State is noted, express to me the feeling that rises in 
each of your hearts as you think of your country, and as you 
think of the patriotism of yourselves and the State. I come 
to Columbia and look out from the steps of the State Capitol 
and see a city that has arisen since the Civil War — not a 
city that did not exist before the Civil War, but a city that 
by its growth and its energy and its taking on life shows 
that while that Civil War brought to it an evidence of the 
tremendous strength, the tremendous power of self-sacrifice 
of its people, it did not destroy their hope for the future, or 
their willingness again to become a part of the great Union 
and to make that Union stronger and that country a Nation 
greater than ever before in its history. And I count it a 



AND STATE PAPERS 417 

great privilege to come here, representing the Nation that 
you love so well, and by this meeting and by your reception, 
and by what I see, to testify to the fact that while the past 
is as it is, and while those things come out of it that make 
us proud on both sides, there is before us in the future a 
united life in upholding our country, in elevating the stand- 
ard of citizenship, in making greater the character and 
the equality of opportunity of the individual that we are 
glad to seize as a common united people, not separated in 
any way by our past history, but the more united because 
while we have those traditions the memory leaves in our 
mind the awfulness of a separation that now is forever ended. 
And now, my friends, I am going to stop. This is the 
two hundred and fifty-first speech I have made, but in no 
one of them have I felt so much satisfaction in expressing 
the truth as I know it. 



LIII 

REMARKS AT THE GEORGIA-CAROLINA FAIR, 
AUGUSTA, GA. 

(NOVEMBER 8, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Governor Brown, Governor Ansel, Ladies 
and Gentlemen, Citizens of Georgia and South Carolina: 

IT IS a great pleasure to be here. I have had the 
pleasure of listening to a governor of a single State 
in his own State, and I have heard his estimate of his own 
State approved by his own fellow-citizens ; but it is an unu- 
sual and exceptional opportunity to have two States repre- 
sented by two Governors, each explaining the excellence 
and the primacy of his particular State, and when there 
is thrown into that controversy the question of personal 
pulchritude, it assumes a character that makes it of exceed- 
ing interest. 

I want first to express my personal happiness in being 
again in Augusta, and in seeing and meeting the friends 
that 1 made during my stay of about two months last year. 
There is a lady in Washington whom I am very anxious to 
see. Nothing could modify my ambitions, nothing restrain 
the haste with which I would go back to the Capitol City 
except the pleasure of meeting my old friends in Augusta. 
I feel always like claiming what Judge Black explained 
with his constitutional law, that when I was elected Presi- 
dent of the United States I was elected from Georgia. And 
while the part which Georgia took in that ceremony was 
what we may call negative, it nevertheless was accompanied 
by the good-will of so many Georgians that I am proud to 
think of the friends that I have here. 

This occasion suggests a number of useful thoughts. It 

418 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 419 

is a meeting of two States to encourage agriculture in both. 
We have arrived at a time in the development of our country 
and in the application of our Constitution when the uniform 
operation of State law upon subjects not covered by the 
Federal power is becoming more and more important. One 
of course, can mention the subject of negotiable instruments, 
of marriage and divorce, and a number of other topics that 
commend themselves as proper subjects of uniform opera- 
tion, but it seems to me that the most important scope, the 
most important collection of subjects is that which relates 
to the conservation of our national resources. Unless we 
can have uniform State operation, uniform State legislation 
with reference to the preservation of our forests, the equaliza- 
tion of water which falls from the clouds, and the preservation 
of our soil from being washed out to sea, we shall not be 
able to carry out the program set for us by Theodore 
Roosevelt, and which to every thoughtful man must commend 
itself as of the highest importance to the safety and the pres- 
ervation of our nation. 

Another subject which under the influence of your growing 
manufacturing interests brings itself into one's mind, even 
though it may suggest a subject of partisan difference, is 
the question of our mercantile marine. You are making 
cotton goods in Georgia and South Carolina, and you wish 
a market in which to dispose of them. Unless our country 
exercises more control over the mercantile marine of the 
world than it now does, you are going to find yourselves at 
great disadvantage in seeking markets of the world in which 
to dispose of your products. Therefore, I commend to your 
consideration the question, What means shall we take to 
establish lines to South America and to the Philippines, 
to the Orient, to Manchuria, and to all those countries to 
which you look for the purchases of the products that you 
here make ? 

[The President was here interrupted for a few moments by 
the appearance of a dirigible balloon over the fair grounds.] 

I hesitate to occupy your time in discussing an old method 



420 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of transporting goods when you have before your eyes the 
newest one invented, and yet I venture to think that it will 
be some time before that method of transportation will be 
followed in the matter of cotton bales. 

Another subject that is forging ahead and must be con- 
sidered by the National Government with a great deal more 
care and with the expenditure of much more money than it 
has heretofore put into such investigation, is the question 
of sanitation and the health of the inhabitants of this country. 
This is peculiarly so in the South, for as you reach nearer 
to the tropics the danger of the spread of diseases is much 
greater. We have now various bureaus in Washington 
that have functions connected with the suppression of diseases 
and the investigation of their character; but they are scat- 
tered, and they need to be united in one bureau, which shall 
devote its attention, just as the Agricultural Department 
devotes its attention, to the study of questions of evil under 
all conditions prevailing in this country, so that by the cir- 
culation of the knowledge obtained it may enable the people 
to live hygienic lives. Now, it is true that the health of the 
citizens is directly committed to the States, but it is also 
true that the question of agriculture is committed by the 
Constitution directly to the States. Nevertheless, the 
Agricultural Department has found much that with the 
means at its command it can do to assist the agriculture 
of the country. Think back two decades, my friends, and 
see what enormous strides have been made in the proper 
treatment of the soils, in the development of your crops, 
in the making available the by-products of those crops, and 
in an entire change of the character of agriculture from a 
haphazard, wasteful industry to one in which science and 
professional knowledge are to-day of the highest importance. 
So, too, with respect to sanitation. It is necessary that the 
towns and States should direct their attention and their 
money to making better bodies for their citizens as well 
as better minds, and if the National Government with its 
resources can follow out lines of investigation that can 



AND STATE PAPERS 421 

show proper treatment to be followed, it is well that it should 
take that step. 

I expect to recommend to Congress that there be a union 
of all the instrumentalities of the Government for the organ- 
ization of means of health and the study of disease. We have 
since the Spanish-American War developed a knowledge 
of diseases, especially of the tropics, that never existed before, 
and when we have studied the tropical diseases we have 
gone a long way to help ourselves in all diseases. The truth 
is that the tropical diseases are only exaggerations generally 
of the diseases that appear in a less virulent form in the 
temperate zone, and by reason of the virulence they 
bear a closer study and give forth a better result in the inves- 
tigation. Now the consequence is that since the Spanish 
War we have found out through the study of our army 
officers and our army surgeons how the yellow fever can be 
suppressed, how malignant malaria can be suppressed. 
Without that knowledge, my dear friends, it would have 
been impossible to build the Panama Canal. We pride 
ourselves on having done something or being about to do 
something that France was not able to do with all 
the millions which De Lesseps was able to command, 
but we must remember that she did not then have at 
her command the knowledge which we have had in the 
suppression of the disease that made life on that 
Isthmus so dangerous to every one who attempted to live 
there. Th«- consequence is that to-day we have less malaria, 
or certainly not more on the Isthmus of Panama than you 
have in your Southern States, and there has not for three 
years been a ease of yellow fever. That can be traced 
directly to the results of the Spanish War and the labor 
of American physicians and especially of the surgeons of 
the United States Army; and if there were no other great 
result from that war, that single aid to humanity is enough 
to have justified it. 

But I am not going to detain you longer. I am here on 
my way home after some 13,000 miles of travel studying the 



422 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

American people. I have studied them before. I sought 
their franchises and that was a considerable study, but it 
is an aid to go about among them, not asking for their votes 
but merely seeking from them advice on public policies, 
their aims, their aspirations and their needs. 

I went from Boston clear across the country to the north- 
west corner in Washington down to the southwest corner at 
Los Angeles, across the two Territories, through that almost 
boundless State of Texas, through Arkansas and Missouri, 
down the Mississippi River, and then through the South 
to New Orleans, through Mississippi, Alabama, and now 
to Georgia and South Carolina, and I feel as if I had had 
an experience that justifies me in saying something about 
the American people. 

Persons have said to me, "If you do all the talking, how 
can you expect to derive any information from the people 
whom you address?" Well, that is a relevant question, 
but I don't do all the talking. I could tell you of 
some banquets and some meetings where other people did 
some talking, and a man must be blind and deaf indeed 
if he can pass through a crowd of intelligent American citizens 
like this and not draw from them, even through his pores, 
something of their thoughts, something of their wishes, 
something of their needs and something of their aims. 

The one thought that strikes a judicial mind going about 
this country is the homogeneity of the American people. We 
have taken in from abroad millions and millions of foreigners, 
but we have amalgamated them in such a remarkable way 
that to-day as you take the trip that I have taken, there is 
nothing that strikes you with the same emphasis and with 
the same certainty as the persistence of the American type. 
We are not Germans, we are not Britishers, we are not 
Frenchmen; we are Americans, and we have the same 
ambitions, the same moral standards and the same love of 
country. I might also say we have the same love of our 
respective States and the same faith in the prosperity of our 
respective counties and towns and cities in which we live. 



AND STATE PAPERS 423 

We are looking forward, looking to the future, confident 
that we can solve the serious problems that stare us in the 
face, asking no odds of any one, but only an equal opportu- 
nity, and with that equal opportunity confident that we can 
achieve in the future as great victories as our fathers achieved 
in the past. 

Now with respect to the Southland, my reception has been 
full of sweet gratification to me, because I have felt that the 
people of the South were glad to see me and wished to show 
me by their reception that they sympathized with my desire 
— my earnest desire — to do everything possible in my 
administration to make completely forgotten all sectional 
lines and everything that would tend to separate us — not 
to forget our cherished traditions — not to forget the heroes 
of our particular sections in that awful struggle that we 
in the North call the "Civil War" and you call the "War 
between the States " — not to forget or abate one bit of our 
pride that has now become a common heritage of all Ameri- 
cans, but to rejoice that, while that great test showed the 
character of American heroes, the character of American 
self-sacrifice, it is in the past, and that the future is with 
nothing but harmony and love between all our people. 



LIV 
SPEECH AT THE AUDITORIUM, RICHMOND, VA. 

(NOVEMBER 10, 1909) 

Mr. Mayor, Governor Swanson, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

IT HAS been my good fortune to be welcomed to 
Virginia a number of times by your distinguished 
( rovernor, and I can not fail to express to him the gratitude 
I really feel toward him for making me always at home 
on Virginia soil. I congratulate you on having such a Gov- 
ernor, and now that he is for the moment to retire to private 
life, I hope that all success and prosperity may follow him 
there. I am quite sure that Virginia knows a good thing 
when it sees it, and that the leisure which he deserves will 
not be drawn out too long. 

I am also indebted to the presence here of the young 
men of the Virginia Military Institute. I congratulate 
them on the military appearance that they present as they 
march along the streets between their admiring fellow 
citizens of Virginia. I am glad to say that as Secretary 
of War I came to know that we depend on the Virginia 
Military Institute as one of two great institutions to furnish 
to us officers when exigency and the danger to the Govern- 
ment should occur and require us to call for men skilled 
in arms, and that they have always shown in the attention 
to duty, in their soldierly bearing, in the high ideals they 
preserve, the type and character and ideals set for them by 
Stonewall Jackson, for whom they entertain, as well they may, 
the highest respect and the fondest memory. 

This, my friends of Virginia, is the last speech I shall make 
swinging around the circle. I do not know whether you feel 
glad about it, but I do. 

424 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 425 

I am glad to be here in Virginia. I feel a certain sort 
of pride in the fact that I was the only Republican candi- 
date for President who ever ventured in a canvass for the 
Presidency to address a Virginia audience, and while the 
result may not have been of such favor as to induce the 
gentleman who follows me to attempt it again, it proves what 
I knew was the case, that I could have in Virginia most 
courteous attention and a most respectful and tolerant 
hearing. 

I left Boston or Beverly on the 14th of September, and I 
have been travelling and talking and talking and travelling 
ever since. I have visited and talked to and seen the people 
of twenty-six States and two Territories. And I think I 
know something about the United States. One fact that 
has impressed itself upon me from beginning to end is the 
spirit of hopefulness, of contentment, of energy, and of enter- 
prise that there is in every corner of this great country, 
and that spirit is not alone in those States that are full of 
fertile fields as you see them from the car window, but that 
spirit prevails in States in which the expanse of the most 
God-forsaken country man ever looked upon is great and 
discouraging. But they have been there long enough to 
know that if they can only catch the water as it falls from 
the sky and guide it to the soil that looks so forbidding, it 
will blossom as the rose and bring forth products fourfold 
what can be cultivated and brought forth in States where 
they have continuous rain. And so it is that they feel that 
while the outlook is apparently one of a desert and most 
discouraging, they have a great advantage over those of us 
that plod along with the rain from the skies in the somewhat 
slow and hardly enterprising East. Now when we have 
those conditions prevailing in the most discouraging part 
of the country, may we not say that the prospect before us, 
made necessarily hopeful by the spirit of the inhabitants, 
is such that we may all be thankful for it ? 

Another fact that drives itself home in respect to every 
audience one addresses is the fact that we are all Americans 



426 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and very much alike. I could if I heard a man pronounce 
the word "south" or the word "door" or the word "shore" 
tell fairly well whether he came from the south or north 
of Mason and Dixon's line. But with that exception, if I 
could not hear what he said and could only look upon the 
crowd, as it is, I could not tell whether the audience came 
from Washington State, from Boston, from California, 
from the Middle West or from the South. The women's 
hats are exactly alike, and a mournful husband on my right 
suggests that they cost as much. 

We have taken millions of foreigners into our civilization, 
but we have amalgamated them, and with the spirit of our 
free institutions and the energy of our civilization we have 
made them all Americans. We have bred to a type, and that 
type is Americanism, a type that commends itself to us as 
having the highest ideals and the greatest potentiality for 
elevation of a country and the individual that the world has 
ever seen. 

Now during all this time of sixty days there has been a 
moment or two of deliberation, and during that time I have 
been studying what is it the duty of an Executive to recom- 
mend to an incoming Congress in respect to future legisla- 
tion ; and when I think of the number of things that Congress 
ought to do, I am staggered lest it may not find the time 
to do them. 

In the first place there is the conservation of our resources, 
the reclamation of arid lands. We have reached a time 
now where a great many people in the West are counting 
on an immediate supply of water for the land upon which 
they have settled, which is not forthcoming because the money 
applied to the reclamation fund does not come in as quickly 
as expected, or at least quickly enough to meet the exigency 
of the occasion. I am strongly in favor of anticipating that 
fund which is a fund raised solely by the sale of public 
lands, by the issuing of bonds, the payment of which shall 
be charged to the same source of revenue. That will bring 
about quickly a change in respect to the arid lands and with 



AND STATE PAPERS 427 

respect to the projects already announced by the Reclama- 
tion Bureau, so that nobody shall be deceived, and the work 
which is a work of primary importance shall go on. The 
truth is, my dear friends, that we are finding that in spite 
of our enormous domain, in spite of its great productivity, 
the demand for the products of the soil is greater because 
of the growing population than the supply under existing 
circumstances, and we must enlarge our acreage in one way 
or another, and the plain way seems by reclamation through 
the application of water to land heretofore a desert and by 
draining those lands which have heretofore been swamp. 
Those lands when brought into productivity will yield far 
more than the lands already under natural tillage. Then 
we have a great deal of valuable coal land owned by the 
Government. We have a great many water-power sites, the 
water power of which will furnish an immense amount of 
power for use by electrical appliances. Then there are 
millions of acres of phosphate to be used in the fertilization 
of the soil. Under existing laws those lands are likely to 
be parted with merely under a homestead settlement. They 
are of such peculiar value that it seems wiser that the Gov- 
ernment should receive some control over the water-power 
sites and the coal lands and the phosphates so that they 
may not come into the hands of one controlling corporation, 
but may be retained by the Government, with the power 
to restrict the prices at which the coal, or at least at which 
the power is sold, to prevent the absorption into one command 
of all the power on the continent. Just how the problem 
is to be worked out it is difficult to state, and certainly I 
would not attempt to state it here, but generous as we have 
been in the past with respect to mineral lands and the lands 
which can enjoy water power, we ought now to end that 
generosity and preserve those things that the Government 
still owns, in order that hereafter with a much more careful 
hand we may grant them for useful development. 

Then we have the anti-trust law on our hands for enforce- 
ment, and the arrangement of the departments of the 



428 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Government in such a way as to make it more effective if 
possible. 

Then there is the interstate commerce law which cer- 
tainly needs amendment in order to give the Interstate 
Commerce tribunal more power to prevent the delays which 
are now incident to appeals to the courts. In my judg- 
ment, the best way is to create a special court and have a 
court that is charged with the knowledge and practice in 
regard to railroads, so that the matter can be promptly 
disposed of. 

Then I am strongly in favor of a postal savings bank. 
I know that in that proposition I come up against a great 
many conservative bankers, and also of a great many who 
view with doubt the wisdom of extending paternalism in 
the Government, but I venture to think that a project ought 
not to be condemned merely by calling it paternal. We have 
got beyond the laisser-faire doctrine in our Government; 
and where it happens that the Government is so situated 
that it can do a thing better than individuals can do it, can 
do it more economically than individuals can do it, and can 
supply a want for a means of thrift, I am in favor of its 
doing it. 

The monetary reform is under consideration by a com- 
mission. When they will reach a conclusion I do not know. 
If there ever was a subject-matter that created differences 
of opinion, it is the question of how to treat our monetary 
and banking matters. Every man has a different theory, 
and with every man having a different theory we don't 
get any farther, but I am hopeful that the Commission 
may present the conditions that exist here and the condi- 
tions as they exist in Europe, and in this way point out to 
us some steps that may be taken to reform what is certainly 
to-day nothing but a patchwork. 

Then there is another subject that is very near to my 
heart. I have been a judge, and legal procedure is a subject 
I know something about. We must improve our legal 
procedure so as to make it both in criminal and civil cases 



AND STATE PAPERS 429 

more simple, more rapid and less expensive, and I mean 
to recommend to Congress the appointment of a commis- 
sion to take that subject up with respect to the Federal 
procedure; and then if by the Federal procedure we achieve 
a result that commends itself, it will form a model for the 
States. 

Then there is another subject that especially in the South 
ought to attract great public attention, and that is the organ- 
ization of a bureau which shall have control, so far as con- 
stitutionally it may be exercised by Federal authority, of 
the health of the United States. We have offices and bureaus 
distributed through the Government that are charged more or 
less with investigation and care and quarantine and that sort 
of thing, but I believe the time has come — and the medical 
profession of this country, who ought to know, and who do 
know, believe that the time has come — for the organization 
of a health bureau and the concentration in it of all the 
instruments for the preservation of health and for the investi- 
gation of diseases that are now included in the National 
Government, and such others as may be properly placed 
there by additional appropriation and direction. 

That is a pretty long list of things to do, but if we set 
our shoulders together we can do a lot in one session or two 
sessions of Congress. When I was in the South before, 
and before I became President, but when I had a reasonable 
expectation of succeeding to that office, I said that I was 
anxious so far as the Executive could, to show to the Southern 
people that in the eye of the Executive and the Adminis- 
tration at Washington they were as closely a part of the 
Union and as much entitled to its consideration in every 
respect as any other part of the country. That, I said, it 
was not possible for the Executive to show other than in 
speech, except by the appointment to Federal office of men 
whose appointment would commend itself to the com- 
munities in which they live, that they might regard those 
appointees not as agents of an alien government, but as 
representing their own government. Now in so far as I 



430 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

have been able I have attempted to carry out that policy. A 
year has not yet elapsed, and you must give me three more 
years in order to demonstrate my sincerity in that regard. 
We have reached a point in this country when we can look 
back, not without love, not without intense pride, but without 
partisan passion, to the events of the Civil War. We have 
reached a point, I am glad to say, when the North can admire 
to the full the heroes of the South, and the South admire 
to the full the heroes of the North. There is a monument 
in Quebec that always commended itself to me — a monu- 
ment to commemorate the battle of the Plains of Abraham; 
and on one face of that beautiful structure is the name of 
Montcalm, and on the other side the name of Wolfe. That 
always seemed to me to be the acme of what we ought to 
reach in this country, and I am glad to say that in my own 
alma mater of Yale we have established an association for 
the purpose of erecting within her academic precincts a memo- 
rial not to the Northern Yale men who died, not to the South- 
ern Yale men who died, but to the Yale men who died in 
the Civil War. And so it is that I venture, without unduly 
obtruding in something that is none of my business, to hope 
that the project suggested by my predecessor in office. 
President Roosevelt, may be alluded to by me with approval 
and the expression of the hope that it is coming to fruition, 
to wit, that there should be a great memorial in honor of 
General Robert E. Lee in the establishment of what he 
himself would value most highly, a great school of engineer- 
ing at Washington and Lee University, and I take this oppor- 
tunity in this presence to express my deep sympathy in 
that movement and my desire to aid it in every way 
possible and proper on my part. 

My friends, I am going to stop and relieve you. I have 
had great pleasure in talking to you in this informal way, 
advising you in some degree of the burdens that I am looking 
forward to undertaking when I get back to Washington. 
I do not know whether you have had that experience when 
you are on the eve of a so-called vacation and your con- 



AND STATE PAPERS 431 

science begins to prick you and then your duties grow moun- 
tain high so that you can not look over them at all. That 
is my feeling now. It is a somewhat strenuous life to eat and 
talk and talk and eat, but there are other things in which 
you have to exercise great responsibility and give great 
attention and industry to what you are undertaking for 
the nation at large, which are even more burdensome, more 
acute in the consumption of vital energy, than such a tour 
as I have had the honor of taking. 

I look into your faces with the pleasurable thought that 
you are connected with the last of a very delightful episode 
in my life. I part with you with the gratitude for your 
cordial reception, with the belief sincere as possible that 
you and I agree in respect to sectionalism and its complete 
obliteration, and with the feeling that you and I rejoice and 
thank God that we are all Americans under Old Glory. 



LV 

ADDRESS AT THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION 

OF THE LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 

IN CONTINENTAL MEMORIAL HALL 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(NOVEMBER 11, 1909) 

Mr. President; and Gentleman of the Laymen's Missionary 
Movement: 

I LIKE to think, whether it be true or not, that we 
have in this generation reached a somewhat different 
view of the responsibilities of a civilized nation from that 
which prevailed in the last generation, especially as applied 
to our country. It was perhaps natural that when we were 
engaged in digging into the soil and doing the best we could 
to make enough to live on, we should fall into the habit of 
thinking that we were a nation by ourselves, with no respon- 
sibilities whatever with respect to the rest of the world. 
So we have had maxims come down to us and a construction 
put upon Washington's farewell address that would still 
keep us in a place of isolation, and with pleasant remarks 
and well and politely expressed hopes for the welfare of other 
peoples, would cause us to devote ourselves entirely to our 
own improvement. In the days when that principle was 
announced and was followed with a good deal of care, there 
was one doctrine which was utterly at variance with it — 
the Monroe Doctrine. That did cause some sort of responsi- 
bility and did make us assume some sort of protection over 
and interest in the independent nations and governments 
of this hemisphere. That is now enlarged into what I think 
we may call a definite recognition on the part of our public 

432 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 433 

men that we have a very distinct interest in the welfare, and 
a very distinct duty with reference to the condition, of the 
countries of this hemisphere, and that we have exhibited 
it in what was, I think we may almost say, the only altru- 
istic foreign war that history presents — that in which we 
fought for the liberties of Cuba and the ending of what we 
regarded at the time as an international scandal. So we have 
gone on; we have established in a sense a receivership for 
Santo Domingo and we are helping out that country as well 
as we may, and we are doing what we can to preserve the 
peace between the Central American countries; and there 
lies back in all the history of this continent the possibilities 
of the heavy obligation resting upon us should unhappiness 
and chaos arise among any of the people of this hemisphere. 
That is one step. The Cuban war illustrated the fact 
that when you go into a war you never know where you 
are coming out. We entered lightly — well, not lightly; 
with a sense of due gravity, but certainly not with a sense 
of what the possibilities were — at Key West and at Santiago, 
and we brought up ten thousand miles away at Manila. 
Then we had to take over that Government; and we still 
have it. It has cost us a good deal of money. I had a 
Democratic Senator ask me the other day how much I 
thought it cost — "right down between us," he said. Well, 
I explained to him that the War Department accounts 
showed, so far as the army was concerned, down to 1902, 
it had cost us about one hundred and seventy millions of 
dollars, and that the further cost depended upon how you 
regarded the armv. If you thought we could get along 
with fifteen or twenty thousand men less than we now had, 
then the whole cost of these men should be imposed on the 
cost of our Philippine policy, which would be twenty-five 
or thirty millions of dollars; but that if vou thought we ought 
to have an army as it is now anyway, it has cost by reason 
of our Philippine policy upward of six million of dollars 
annually. Perhaps I am a little bit extreme; perhaps 
my experience in the Philippines has colored my view; 



434 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

but I do not think that the money we have spent even 
estimating it at the highest sum, has been wasted in any 
way. I think it has developed our national character; that 
it has broadened us into a view of our national responsi- 
bility that no other experience could. No one can say — 
I mean conscientiously say, that is "right down between 
us" — that we have been there for the exploitation of our 
own business. I do not mean to say that it may not come 
along, and I think it will and I hope it will; but certainly 
we have not made any money out of it up to date, and cer- 
tainly we have not been there and have not done the things 
we have done with a view to our business profit. We have 
been there conscientiously — and I think I can speak for 
part of those who have had to do with its immediate responsi- 
bility — for the betterment of the people of the Philippine 
Islands; and I am sure we have bettered their condition. 
We are in the position of many a man who has sought to 
help another man, and if we go into that sort of thing for 
undying gratitude we may as well give it up in the beginning. 
It does not continue and it does not persist, and the only 
benefit you can get out of it is the consciousness of having 
tried to do something for another man, and the belief that 
you have, no matter what he thinks about it. 

I was thrown into the Philippines against my will — I 
won't say that, for I am a person I presume who could say 
yes or no — but I mean I was led into it by another, by that 
sweet nature, that most engaging character, that lovely 
man, W'illiam McKinley. I know what actuated him and 
I know that the spirit that actuated him influenced us all — 
his successor, Theodore Roosevelt; his Secretary of War, 
Elihu Root; and all who had the good fortune to serve under 
those great men. In the control and government of those 
islands I first came to be aware of the importance of foreign 
missions; and, if I may say so, I think there is a strong 
analogy between the spirit that leads a nation into what 
we have done in Cuba, in Santo Domingo and in the Philip- 
pines, and that movement which I am glad to see growing 



AND STATE PAPERS 435 

stronger and stronger — the movement in favor of foreign 
missions. The Philippine Islands themselves are an example 
of what ancient foreign missions could do. They are the 
only people, the only race, in the Orient who are Christians, 
and they were made so three hundred years ago by the 
earnest efforts of Augustinian and Franciscan friars. Thev 
led them on, taught them the agricultural arts, and led them on 
to a peaceful and religious life. They did not believe in too 
much education; they did not believe in bringing them into 
close communion with the European nations. They thought 
there was a good deal they might learn there that would 
hurt them. But that which they wrought has been to our 
great advantage in working out the problem that we are 
set to there, the problem of teaching them self-government. 
They are a Christian people, and they look to Europe and 
America for their ideals, and they recognize those ideals, 
and that makes it possible to instil in them the principles 
of civil liberty and the freedom of our institutions. Now 
there came about in the Islands what is perfectly natural 
with the prevalence of one denomination, and the division 
between the Spanish and the native priesthood led to a great 
deal of demoralization in the church, and led to its taking 
on a very strong political character. The condition has 
greatly improved since we went in there, in that regard, 
because of course we carried with us entire freedom of reli- 
gion. That has led to the sending in of missionaries of other 
than the Roman Catholic denomination, and has brought 
about a spirit of emulation and competition that makes 
for the good of the entire Islands and for all the churches. 
But the operation of the foreign missions there, the effect 
upon the people, the influence upon the people which the 
church exerts and without which the Government could 
carry on but few of its reforms, all impress themselves upon 
a man charged with the responsibility of civil government 
in those Islands. 

In the Orient I could not but take an interest in what 
occurred on the mainland. Every time you travel around the 



436 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

world, or travel anywhere, you have to refresh your knowl- 
edge. The Philippine Islands are about sixty-six hours 
from Hong Kong, but here we are apt to associate them all 
together. Distances there do not seem quite so great as they 
do here, and you do come closer to China when you are in 
the Philippines than when you are here. We could, those 
of us who were in the Orient, study somewhat the Chinese 
question, study somewhat the movements that were going 
on in that great Empire of four hundred millions of people; 
and the chief movement that was going on was a movement 
that found its inspiration, that had its progress, in the foreign 
missions that have been sent there to introduce Christian 
civilization among that people. I do not hesitate to say that, 
because I am convinced of the fact. They are the outposts 
of the Christian civilization. Each missionary, with his 
house and his staff, forms a nucleus about which gathers 
an influence far in excess of the numerical list of the converts. 
They have a political influence, an influence upon the Gov- 
ernment of China itself, upon the Viceroys of China, who 
exercise so much power there that we do not understand it. 
The development of China to-day, and her budding out as 
she is, and as I hope she will continue to do, is largely the 
result of, first, the missionary movement, and then the 
education in America and elsewhere, under the influence 
of these missionaries, of young Chinamen who are anxious 
that their country shall take the position that her wealth, 
and numbers, and resources, and possibilities, and history 
justify. The same thing is true, though I am not so familiar 
with it, in regard to Africa. The men who take their lives 
in their hands and go among the natives are entitled to be 
called the outposts of civilization. They have been criticised, 
and I presume that is something that is common to human- 
kind; they have been held up to contempt at times. I 
have read one book by a very distinguished author who 
visited China and thought it was wise to poke fun at what 
he called the assumed self-sacrifice of the missionaries in 
China. But I am glad to say — I have not seen it myself, 



AND STATE PAPERS 437 

but I understand — that the author has withdrawn all these 
implications and all of this criticism of the men who are 
fighting for the cause of civilization in that great country. 
You visit a Chinese mission — I mean a denominational 
mission in China from this country or Great Britain — and 
you find a large house, you find a considerable staff, you find 
as near comfort as they can have in a country that does not 
know what Occidental comfort is; but you find upon exam- 
ination that they have to go out among the sick, they have 
to pursue their course of life far away from friends and 
homes: they have to undergo that homesickness that no one 
understands until he has been ten thousand miles away 
from home and is longing just to breathe in the smoke of 
his own home, dirty as it is, in order that he may know 
that he is near where he grew up. The lives they lead, 
the good they do, and the fact that they represent the highest 
of our civilization, make it important that they should be 
sent, with all the instruments of usefulness possible, into 
those far distant places. 1 do not want to reflect upon any- 
body, Imt I am bound to say that in those distant lands a 
great many who visit there for gain, and for so-called busi- 
ness, for livelihood that they could not earn at home, are not 
representatives of our best element at home; and they visit 
there for other purposes than the spread of Christian civiliza- 
tion. They lake in the native when they can, and they do 
not impress the native, who has only them to judge by, 
thai the civilization that they represent would be any great 
improvement on that which he lias. When you contrast 
them with the missionaries who go there only for disinter- 
ested purposes, risking their lives by going into parts of that 
country where, should an uprising occur, there is no adequate 
protection, it makes me indignant to hear contempt expressed 
for these men who are carrying the banner of Christian 
civilization and putting themselves in positions where they 
may be complete sacrifices to the cause. They say they 
were the cause of the Boxer trouble. Anybody who looks 
into that knows that they had to bear the danger of it. But 



438 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the cause of the Boxer trouble came from the fear on the 
part of China that there was a disposition on the part of a 
good many Christian powers to divide up, and that the 
division was going to be parts of China. That was their 
fear of foreign intervention and they manifested it in a plain 
way, and the missionaries who were among them for the 
purpose of spreading Christian civilization had to bear the 
brunt of it. That is the only excuse for criticism of the 
missionaries in respect to the Boxer movement. 

I sincerely hope that the result of this movement will give 
to the foreign missions an impetus that, with due respect to 
our clerical brethren, it can not have unless the whole body 
of good men in the community press forward. I have spoken 
of it solely from the laymen's standpoint and not from the 
purely religious standpoint; but I have spoken the things 
that I think I know, and I am here not so much to talk as 
to express by my presence the sympathy I have with the 
movement that you have so successfully inaugurated. 



LVI 

REMARKS AT THE GOLDEN JUBILEE DEDICA- 
TION OF ST. ALOYSIUS CHURCH, 
WASHINGTON D. C. 

(NOVEMBER 14, 1909) 

Father McDonnell, Cardinal Gibbons, Monsignor Fal- 
conio, my Fellow Citizens: 

I AM glad to be present on this occasion, the golden 
jubilee of the foundation of this church. In our 
country, in this Government and under our Constitution 
there is no union of Church and State, but rather a declared 
separation of them. This has been sometimes misunder- 
stood by those who did not know our institutions, as an indi- 
cation that there was something hostile on the part of our 
Government toward or some lack of sympathy with the 
Church of God. This is as far as possible from the truth; 
and I have always sought, in assisting every such church 
on interesting occasions like this, to testify by my presence 
and by words of congratulation, that there is nothing which 
the people and the country of the United States so depend 
upon for progress and advancement of their ideals as the 
influence and power of all the churches of the community. 
They tend to exalt the nation. I am here to-day therefore 
to congratulate Father McDonnell and his congregation and 
the distinguished dignitaries of the Catholic Church on the 
growth in this community of this Church of St. Aloysius, 
and on the good that it has done, and to testify as a repre- 
sentative of the Government to the sympathy we have with 
this instrument and all others that make for righteousness. 



439 



LVII 

ADDRESS AT NORFOLK, VA., ON THE OCCASION 

OF THE CONVENTION OF THE ATLANTIC 

DEEPER WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION 

(November 19, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman, Governor Swanson, Delegates to the Atlantic 
Deeper Waterways Association, Ladies and Gentlemen, 
Citizens of the Old Dominion : 

I AM glad again to be on Virginia soil, and I am glad 
again to be introduced by your distinguished Chief 
Magistrate, Governor Swanson. He never introduces me 
to a Virginia audience that I don't want to come again. 
He embodies in what he says that genuine enthusiastic sense 
of hospitality that distinguishes Virginia, and therefore I 
always like to follow him. If I get him out in Ohio I will 
give him also a test of Ohio hospitality, but not with the 
same eloquence or the same elegance of language. But 
I am glad to be here in his company and in the company 
of the delegates of the Waterways Association. I have given 
not enough study, but some, to the proposition, not so 
much in this neighborhood as on the Gulf, and I know that 
along the Gulf there are places demanding attention where 
the business that now exists justifies the claim that money 
shall be invested in order to make all that network of inner 
waterways reaching from the Gulf and the Atlantic useful, 
in order to reduce rates, or in order to furnish transportation 
where there really is no transportation now. 

There has been, as your Governor intimates, a general 
movement over the country in favor of the expenditure of 
money to improve our waterways, inland and coastal; and 
I am sure that that movement has the support of all the 

440 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 441 

people, has the support of all those responsible to the people 
for the expenditure of the money raised by taxation or 
otherwise. All that they require is that there should be 
shown in an ordinary reasonable way and by evidence that 
will appeal to sensible men, that the money which we are 
about to invest will certainly redound to the benefit of the 
people in the neighborhood where it is spent, not by way 
of furnishing labor for two or three years, not by way of 
investing capital for four or five years, but shall redound 
by way of improving transportation permanently. When 
you have made your case, then I am sure the Government 
and Congress will respond to it. That the case can be 
made I doubt not with respect to definite projects, the 
operation of which can be shown by reference to the busi- 
ness now done, or the business which certainly will be 
furnished, but what I wish to deprecate is a general propo- 
sition to raise a lot of money and dump some here and some 
there and some over there and sonic back here, in order to 
distribute il equally over the country. I am opposed to 
that. Iain in favor of expending the money for an improve- 
ment in Norfolk and not expending it for an improvement 
somewhere else if the Norfolk project is a good one and that 
somewhere else is not, and the people who come from some- 
where else have got to be judicial and impartial enough to 
feel thai the investment at Norfolk redounds to the whole 
country, while the investment somewhere else does not 
redound to anybody but a little local fervor at the time of 
the expenditure of the money. In other words, we ought to 
go at this business as if we were business men, spending the 
money to redound to us in profit and in dividends. When 
we do thai 1 don't think the people of the United States will 
grudge a cent of the many millions that it is going to cost 
to give us the improvements we ought to have, no matter 
where they are. 

Now, niy friends, this wind and this great concourse of 
people whom I am trying to make hear, do not invite a great 
length of speech, and therefore I am going to pass from the 



442 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Waterways Association, which calls you here, with the hope 
that they will proceed in a business-like way to demonstrate 
what can be done by that which they recommend and com- 
mend it to the entire American people; and as one of those 
exercising temporary authority I want to say that I will 
take up what is projected and proposed with all the sym- 
pathy possible, but nevertheless with what I hope is a judi- 
cial spirit to reject what the evidence does not sustain, and 
to approve what the evidence does sustain. 

Now, my friends, there are other thoughts that this meeting 
suggests. In the first place it must come back to you, as it 
did to me, and send a thrill down your backs, to see those 
two columns that stood in front of the reviewing stand, and 
now stand here, the Blue and the Gray. You say it is getting 
so common to see them together that it really does not call 
for comment, and perhaps that is so, but I am just going to 
make a point of it because I need subjects, and also I want 
to express to both those columns my appreciation of the 
honor they have done me in turning out to-day. 

Secondly, you can not stand here and have the breezes 
come over from Hampton Roads without thinking of that 
battle of the Merrimac and the Monitor when it seemed 
as if the fate of the nation was trembling in the balance, 
and you can not think of that battle and of the prowess and 
naval courage and bravery that were shown there on both 
sides without having your mind come down to those jackies 
that passed us in presence of the reviewing stand this morn- 
ing. You can not stand here in Norfolk, which has the 
most important navy yard and naval base that we have in 
the United States, without having your mind recur to that 
arm of the public service which we have done so much to 
develop, with whose growth I hope we shall do nothing to 
interfere. I want the Navy to continue to be maintained 
in a condition worthy of this country. We are not knock- 
ing anybody's chip off his shoulder, and we are not having 
a chip on our shoulder, but we are a great nation of eighty 
or ninety millions of people, and we must under present 



AND STATE PAPERS 443 

conditions in order to maintain the prestige that is propor- 
tionate to our stand before the world, have a navy that is 
worth seeing and able to fight if it has to. Now I am speak- 
ing of it here because somehow or other I am convinced in 
Norfolk that the people of Norfolk are quite judicial in their 
reference to the growth of the Navy. 

There is another thing I want to say that will appeal 
to you. We have a good many coast defenses — none too 
many. You are here at the end of Chesapeake Bay, which 
is the greatest strategic point of naval rendezvous in these 
United States. We have very heavy and very formidable 
coast defenses at Fortress Monroe and all about here, but 
if we wish to protect this coast we ought to protect with as 
much care as possible the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, 
and that by erecting an island on the middle ground and 
putting a fort there that shall be impregnable. That is 
what I want. That is what I recommended when I was 
Secretary of W r ar, and that is what I am going to push for 
the next three years with the hope that I will get it at the end 
of that time. 

And now, my friends, I have talked enough for your com- 
fort and for my throat. I have been talking too much. I 
talked clear across the continent on the north and down 
on the west and east on the south, and I have gotten into the 
habit and I can not help it. My voice has not had any test 
for more than four or five days, so I am letting it go. 

But seriously speaking, my dear friends, I am glad again 
to be back on the soil of Virginia, and in the Southland, and 
to find that the warmth of reception that I had all through 
the South is only repeated in old Norfolk and in the Old 
Dominion as I visit it again, and that the sentiment in favor 
of a united country, of cherishing the traditions of both sides 
as honorable to both, but with a feeling of loyalty to the 
old flag that was never exceeded in the history before, is 
still here to make a Northerner and a Southerner rejoice 
and to make the President of the United States feel that he 
is entirely at home among you. 



LVIII 

REMARKS AT THE MEETING OF THE BOARD 

OF TRUSTEES OF THE HAMPTON 

INSTITUTE, HAMPTON, VIRGINIA 

(NOVEMBER 20, 1909) 

Dr. Frissell, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Members of Hampton 
Institute: 

1HAVE had to do, during the last sixty days, a good deal 
of speaking without preparation, and it was my 
habit to gather the ideas of those who had preceded me 
and mix them up and use them to the best advantage. But 
the trouble about this afternoon has been that I have been 
so intensely interested in everything which I have heard that 
I have not had any time to mix them up or give them in any 
different form from that beautiful one in which they have 
been presented. 

I am very proud that I have had the honor to be elected 
a member of the board of trustees of this institution, and I 
am proud because I have been thought worthy. I am glad 
because I know that I can not come into contact with, men 
like Dr. Frissell, Mr. Ogden, Bishop McVickar, George 
Foster Peabody and others who for the joy of service have 
developed this institution, without absorbing some of those 
virtues which have guided their efforts in building up this 
wonderful work. Now, in the first place, I could not help 
thinking, as I heard Dr. Eliot say what I hoped was true, and 
what I have ventured to say before, and what I now know 
is true because he said it, of the reform in education here, 
of another great reform that had come to the English people 
in a similar way. The depraved condition of the civil 
service in the English Government received its remedy and 

4ii 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 445 

became better, and such a model service as it is now, through 
the lessons that were learned by the English statesmen from 
the Indian Civil Service, and so it is here. 

We had been struggling along for several hundred years 
with our system of education. There was presented to 
General Armstrong, the founder of this institution, the 
question of what we should do for the Negro and the Indian 
races in their almost helpless condition as we found them 
after the war. The necessity for helping their condition led 
him to undertake this system of education, that of manual 
dexterity, united with the teaching of life as it was to be. 
It has now developed not alone for Negroes and Indians, 
but for the white people throughout this land. I have always 
thought that, and, when the foremost educator of the land 
says so, I am going to assert it. 

The second thought, and in certain aspects the most 
important phase of this system which Genera] Armstrong- 
founded and which Dr. Frissell has continued with such 
success, is the fact that right here in Hampton, in "Little 
Scotland," we have seen worked out what I regard as the 
solution of what we call the race question in this country. 
I do not mean that it is settled and I do not mean that the 
problem Is solved, because problems like that are not solved 
in a decade. It takes a number of decades. But when you 
take the speech of former Governor Montague on the one 
side, and the speech of Major Moton on the other, and put 
together and give effect to the spirit that actuated both, 
you have the solution of the race question. Major Moton 
was sure that he wouldn't make a good Indian or a good 
white man. Well, I don't know about that; but I am sure 
that he makes a pretty good Scotchman, if one can judge 
by the way he leads his chorus in Scotch airs. If ever those 
beautiful airs were rendered with finer harmony, and better 
understanding of their meaning, and sweeter tones, than 
were rendered here this afternoon, I have never heard them — 
perhaps they are in Scotland. 

I am not going to detain you long. I am glad to be here 



446 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to testify my deep personal Interest in this institution, my 
deep respect for those who have brought it to what it is, 
my recognition of it as a national institution, the wisdom 
of the suggestion of Dr. Eliot that there ought to be schools 
all over this country patterned after it, and while I hold, 
temporarily, the Presidency of the United States, I am glad 
to use that office, so far as I can by representation, to testify 
to the interest of the American people in the problem which 
is being worked out here. 



LIX 

MESSAGE TO THE TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 
AT THE SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTY- 
FIRST CONGRESS 

(DECEMBER 7, 1909) 

To the Senate and the I louse of Representatives: 

THE relations of the United States with all foreign 
governments have continued upon the normal basis 
of amity and good understanding, and are very generally 
satisfactory. 

EUROPE 

Pursuant to the provisions of the general treaty of arbitra- 
tion concluded between the United Slates and Great Britain, 
April 4, 11)08, a special agreement was entered into between 
the two countries on January 27, 1909, for the submission 
of questions relating to the fisheries on the North Atlantic 
Coast to a tribunal to be formed from members of the 
Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. 

In accordance with the provisions of the special agreement 
the printed case of each government was, on October 4 last, 
submitted to the other and to the Arbitral Tribunal at The 
Hague, and the counter ease of the United States is now in 
course of preparation. 

The American rights under the fisheries article of the 
Treaty of 1818 have been a cause of difference between 
the United States and Great Britain for nearly seventy years. 
The interests involved are of great importance to the Amer- 
ican fishing industry, and the final settlement of the con- 
troversy will remove a source of constant irritation and 
complaint. This is the first case involving such great inter- 

447 



448 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

national questions which has been submitted to the Perma- 
nent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. 

The treaty between the United States and Great Britain 
concerning the Canadian International boundary, concluded 
April 11, 1908, authorizes the appointment of two commis- 
sioners to define and mark accurately the international 
boundary line between the United States and the Dominion 
of Canada in the waters of the Passamaquoddy Bay, and 
provides for the exchange of briefs within the period of six 
months. The briefs were duly presented within the pre- 
scribed period, but as the commissioners failed to 
agree within six months after the exchange of the printed 
statements as required by the treaty, it has now become 
necessary to resort to the arbitration provided for in the 
article. 

The International Fisheries Commission, appointed pursu- 
ant to and under the authority of the Convention of April 11, 
1908, between the United States and Great Britain, has com- 
pleted a system of uniform and common international 
regulations for the protection and preservation of the food 
fishes in international boundary waters of the United States 
and Canada. 

The regulations will be duly submitted to Congress with 
a view to the enactment of such legislation as will be necessary 
under the convention to put them into operation. 

The convention providing for the settlement of interna- 
tional differences between the United States and Canada, 
including the apportionment between the two countries of 
certain of the boundary waters and the appointment of com- 
missioners to adjust certain other questions, signed on the 
11th day of January, 1909, and to the ratification of which 
the Senate gave its advice and consent on March 3, 1909, 
has not yet been ratified on the part of Great Britain. 

Commissioners have been appointed on the part of the 
United States to act jointly with commissioners on the 
part of Canada in examining into the question of obstructions 
in the St. John River between Maine and New Brunswick, 



AND STATE PAPERS 449 

and to make recommendations for the regulation of the 
uses thereof, and are now engaged in this work. 

Negotiations for an international conference to consider 
and reach an arrangement providing for the preservation 
and protection of the fur seals in the North Pacific are in 
progress with the governments of Great Britain, Japan, 
and Russia. The attitude of the governments interested 
leads me to hope for a satisfactory settlement of this question 
as the ultimate outcome of the negotiations. 

The Second Peace Conference, recently held at The 
Hague, adopted a convention for the establishment of an 
International Prize Court upon the joint proposal of delega- 
tions of the United Slates. France, Germany, and Great 
Britain. The law to he observed by the tribunal in the 
decision of prize cases was. however, left in an uncertain 
and therefore unsatisfactory state. Article 7 of the Conven- 
tion provided thai the court was to he governed by the 
provisions of treaties existing between the belligerents, but 
that "in the absence of such provisions, the court shall apply 
the rules of international law. If no generally recognized 
rule exists, the courl shall give judgment in accordance with 
the general principles of justice and equity." As, however, 
many questions in international maritime law are understood 
differently and therefore interpreted differently in various 
countries, it was deemed advisable not to intrust legislative 
powers to the proposed court, Imt to determine the rules 
of law properly applicable in a conference of the repre- 
sentative maritime nations. Pursuant to an invitation of 
Great Britain a conference was held at London from Decem- 
ber 2, 1908, to February 26, I !)<»!>. in which the following 
powers participated: (he United Stales, Austria-Hungary, 
France. Germany, Great Britain, Italy. Japan, the Nether- 
lands, Russia, and Spain. The conference resulted in the 
Declaration of London, unanimously agreed to and signed 
by the participating powers, concerning among other matters 
the highly important subjects of blockade, contraband, 
the destruction of neutral prizes, and continuous voyages. 



450 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

The Declaration of London is an eminently satisfactory 
codification of the international maritime law, and it is hoped 
that its reasonableness and fairness will secure its general 
adoption, as well as remove one of the difficulties standing 
in the way of the establishment of an International Prize 
Court. 

Under the authority given in the sundry civil appropriation 
act, approved March 4, 1909, the United States was repre- 
sented at the International Conference on Maritime Law 
at Brussels. The conference met on the 28th of September 
last and resulted in the signature ad referendum of a conven- 
tion for the unification of certain regulations with regard 
to maritime assistance and salvage and a convention for 
the unification of certain rules with regard to collisions at sea. 

Two new projects of conventions which have not heretofore 
been considered in a diplomatic conference, namely, one 
concerning the limitation of the responsibility of shipowners, 
and the other concerning marine mortgages and privileges, 
have been submitted by the conference to the different 
governments. 

The conference adjourned to meet again on April 11, 1910. 

The international conference for the purpose of promoting 
uniform legislation concerning letters of exchange, which was 
called by the Government of the Netherlands to meet at The 
Hague in September, 1909, has been postponed to meet 
at that capital in June, 1910. The United States will 
be appropriately represented in this Conference under 
the provision therefor already made by Congress. 

The cordial invitation of Belgium to be represented by 
a fitting display of American progress in the useful arts 
and inventions at the World's Fair to be held at Brussels 
in 1910 remains to be acted upon by the Congress. Mindful 
of the advantages to accrue to our artisans and producers 
in competition with their Continental rivals, I renew the 
recommendation heretofore made that provision be made 
for acceptance of the invitation and adequate representation 
in the Exposition. 



AND STATE PAPERS 451 

The question arising out of the Belgian annexation of 
the Independent State of the Congo, which has so long and 
earnestly preoccupied the attention of this Government 
and enlisted the sympathy of our best citizens, is still open, 
but in a more hopeful stage. This Government was among 
the foremost in the great work of uplifting the uncivilized 
regions of Africa and urging the extension of the benefits 
of civilization, education, and fruitful open commerce to that 
vast domain, and is a party to treaty engagements of all the 
interested powers designed to carry out that great duty 
to humanity. The way to better the original and adventitious 
conditions, so burdensome to the natives and so destructive 
to their development, has been pointed out, by observation 
and experience, not alone of American representatives, 
but by cumulative evidence from all quarters and by the 
investigations of Belgian agents. The announced pro- 
grams of reforms, striking at many of the evils known to 
exist, are an augury of better things. The attitude of the 
United States is one of benevolent encouragement, coupled 
with a hopeful trust thai the good work, responsibly under- 
taken and zealously perfected to the accomplishment of the 
results so ardently desired, will soon justify the wisdom that 
inspires them and satisfy the demands of humane sentiment 
throughout the world. 

A convention between the United States and Germany, 
under which the non-working provisions of the German 
patent law are made inapplicable to the patents of American 
citizens, was concluded on Febuary ^.'5, 1909, and is now 
in force. Negotiations for similar conventions looking 
to the placing of American inventors on the same footing as 
nationals have recently been initiated with other European 
governments whose laws require the local working of foreign 
patents. 

Under an appropriation made at the last session of the 
Congress, a commission was sent on American cruisers to 
Monrovia to investigate the interests of the United States 
and its citizens in Liberia. Upon its arrival at Monrovia, 



452 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the commission was enthusiastically received, and during 
its stay in Liberia was everywhere met with the heartiest 
expressions of good-will for the American Government 
and people, and the hope was repeatedly expressed on all 
sides that this Government might see its way clear to do 
something to relieve the critical position of the Republic 
arising in a measure from external as well as internal and 
financial embarrassments. 

The Liberian Government afforded every facility to the 
commission for ascertaining the true state of affairs. The 
commission also had conferences with representative citizens, 
interested foreigners and the representatives of foreign 
governments in Monrovia. Visits were made to various 
parts of the Republic and to the neighboring British colony 
of Sierra Leone, where the commission was received by and 
conferred with the Governor. 

It will be remembered that the interest of the United 
States in the Republic of Liberia springs from the historical 
fact of the foundation of the Republic by the colonization 
of American citizens of the African race. In an early 
treaty with Liberia there is a provision under which the 
United States may be called upon for advice or assistance. 
Pursuant to this provision and in the spirit of the moral 
relationship of the United States to Liberia, that Republic 
last year asked this Government to lend assistance in the 
solution of certain of their national problems, and hence 
the commission was sent. 

The report of our commissioners has just been completed 
and is now under examination by the Department of State. 
It is hoped that there may result some helpful measures, 
in which case it may be my duty again to invite your attention 
to this subject. 

The Norwegian Government, by a note addressed on 
January 26, 1909, to the Department of State, conveyed 
an invitation to the Government of the United States to take 
part in a conference which it is understood will be held 
in February or March, 1910, for the purpose of devising 



AND STATE PAPERS 453 

means to remedy existing conditions in the Spitzbergen 
Islands. 

This invitation was conveyed under the reservation that the 
question of altering the status of the islands as countries 
belonging to no particular state, and as equally open to the 
citizens and subjects of all states, should not be raised. 

The European powers invited to this Conference by the 
Government of Norway were Belgium, Denmark, France, 
Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, and the Nether- 
lands. 

The Department of State, in view of proofs filed with it in 
1906, showing the American possession, occupation and work- 
ing of certain coal-bearing lands in Spitzbergen, accepted 
the invitation under the reservation above stated, and 
under the further reservation that all interests in those islands 
already vested should be protected and that there should be 
equality of opportunity for the future. It was further pointed 
out that membership in the conference on the part of the 
United States was qualified b\ the consideration that this 
Government would not become a signatory to any conven- 
tional arrangement concluded by the European members 
of the conference which would imply contributory participa- 
tion by the United Slates in any obligation or responsibility 
for the enforcement of any scheme of administration which 
might lie devised by the conference for the islands. 

THE NEAR EAST 

His Majesty, Mehmed V., Sultan of Turkey, recently sent 
to this country a special embassy to announce his accession. 
The quick transition of the Government of the Ottoman 
Empire from one of retrograde tendencies to a constitutional 
government with a parliament and with progressive modern 
policies of reform and public improvement is one of the 
important phenomena of our times. Constitutional govern- 
ment seems also to have made further advance in Persia. 
These events have turned the eyes of the world upon the 
Near East. In that quarter the prestige of the United States 



454 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

has spread widely through the peaceful influence of American 
schools, universities, and missionaries. There is every reason 
why we should obtain a greater share of the commerce of 
the Near East since the conditions are more favorable now 
than ever before. 

LATIN AMERICA 

One of the happiest events in recent Pan-American 
diplomacy was the pacific, independent settlement by the 
governments of Bolivia and Peru of a boundary difference 
between them, which for some weeks threatened to cause 
war and even to entrain embitterments affecting other 
republics less directly concerned. From various quarters, 
directly or indirectly concerned, the intermediation of the 
United States was sought to assist in a solution of the con- 
troversy. Desiring at all times to abstain from any undue 
mingling in the affairs of sister republics and having faith 
in the ability of the governments of Peru and Bolivia 
themselves to settle their differences in a manner satisfac- 
tory to themselves which, viewed with magnanimity, would 
assuage all embittcrment, this Government steadily abstained 
from being drawn into the controversy and was much 
gratified to find its confidence justified by events. 

On the 9th of July next there will open at Buenos Ayres 
the Fourth Pan-American Conference. This conference 
will have a special meaning to the hearts of all Americans, 
because around its date are clustered the anniversaries of 
the independence of so many of the American republics. 
It is not necessary for me to remind the Congress of the 
political, social, and commercial importance of these gather- 
ings. You are asked to make liberal appropriation for our 
participation. If this be granted, it is my purpose to appoint 
a distinguished and representative delegation, qualified 
fittingly to represent this country and to deal with the 
problems of intercontinental interest which will there be 
discussed. 

The Argentine Republic will also hold from May to 



AND STATE PAPERS 455 

November, 1910, at Buenos Ayres, a great International 
Agricultural Exhibition in which the United States has been 
invited to participate. Considering the rapid growth of the 
trade in the United States with the Argentine Republic and 
the cordial relations existing between the two nations, to- 
gether with the fact that it provides an opportunity to show 
deference to a sister republic on the occasion of the celebra- 
tion of its national independence, the proper Departments 
of this Government are taking steps to apprise the interests 
concerned of the opportunity afforded by this exhibition, 
in which appropriate participation by this country is so 
desirable. The designation of an official representative is 
also receiving consideration. 

To-day, more than ever before. American capital is seeking 
investment in foreign countries, and American products 
are more and more generally seeking foreign markets. As 
a consequence, in all countries there are American citizens 
and American interests to be protected, on occasion, by their 
Government. These movements of men, of capital, and of 
commodities bring peoples and governments closer together 
and so form bonds of peace and mutual dependency, as they 
musl also naturally sometimes make passing points of friction. 
The resultant situation inevitably imposes upon this Govern- 
ment vastly increased responsibilities. This Administration, 
through the Department of State and the foreign service 
is lending all proper support to legitimate and beneficial 
American enterprises in foreign countries, the degree of 
such support being measured by the national advantages 
to be expected. A citizen himself can not by contract 
or otherwise divest himself of the right, nor can this Govern- 
ment escape the obligation, of his protection in his personal 
and property rights when these are unjustly infringed in a 
foreign country. To avoid ceaseless vexations it is proper 
that in considering whether American enterprise should be 
encouraged or supported in a particular country, the Govern- 
ment should give full weight not only to the national as 
opposed to the individual benefits to accrue, but also to 



456 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the fact whether or not the Government of the country in 
question in its administration and in its diplomacy faithful 
to the principles of moderation, equity, and justice upon 
which alone depend international credit, in diplomacy as 
well as in finance. 

The Pan-American policy of this Government has long 
been fixed in its principles and remains unchanged. With 
the changed circumstances of the United States and of the 
republics to the south of us, most of which have great natural 
resources, stable government, and progressive ideals, the 
apprehension which gave rise to the Monroe Doctrine may 
be said to have nearly disappeared, and neither the doctrine 
as it exists nor any other doctrine of American policy should 
be permitted to operate for the perpetuation of irresponsible 
government, the escape of just obligations, or the insidious 
allegation of dominating ambitions on the part of the United 
States. 

Beside the fundamental doctrines of our Pan-American 
policy there have grown up a realization of political interests, 
community of institutions and ideals, and a flourishing 
commerce. All these bonds will be greatly strengthened 
as time goes on and increased facilities, such as the great 
bank soon to be established in Latin America, supply the 
means for building up the colossal intercontinental commerce 
of the future. 

My meeting with President Diaz and the greeting 
exchanged on both American and Mexican soil served, 
I hope, to signalize the close and cordial relations which so 
well bind together this republic and the great republic 
immediately to the south, between which there is so vast a 
network of material interests. 

I am happy to say that all but one of the cases which for 
so long vexed our relations with Venezuela have been settled 
within the past few months and that, under the enlightened 
regime now directing the Government of Venezuela, pro- 
vision has been made for arbitration of the remaining 
case before The Hague Tribunal. 



AND STATE PAPERS 457 

On July 30, 1909, the Government of Panama agreed, 
after considerable negotiation, to indemnify the relatives 
of the American officers and sailors who were brutally treated, 
one of them having, indeed, been killed by the Panaman 
police this year. 

The sincere desire of the Government of Panama to do 
away with a situation where such an accident could occur 
is manifest in the recent request in compliance with which 
this Government has lent the services of an officer of the 
Army to be employed by the Government of Panama as 
Instructor of Police. 

The sanitary improvements and public works undertaken 
in Cuba prior to the present administration of that Govern- 
ment, in the success of which the United States is interested 
under the treaty, are reported to be making good progress; 
and since the Congress provided for the continuance of the 
reciprocal commercial arrangement between Cuba and the 
United Slates assurance has been received that no negotia- 
tions injuriously affecting the situation will be undertaken 
without consultation. 

The collection of the customs of the Dominican Republic 
through the general receiver of customs appointed by the 
President of the United States in accordance with the con- 
vention of February 8, 1907, has proceeded in an uneventful 
and satisfactory manner. The customs receipts have 
decreased owing to disturbed political and economic con- 
ditions and to a very natural curtailment of imports in view 
of the anticipated revision of the Dominican tariff schedule. 
The payments to the fiscal agency fund for the service of the 
bonded debt of the republic, as provided by the convention, 
have been regularly and promptly made, and satisfactory 
progress has been made in carrying out the provisions of the 
convention looking toward the completion of the adjustment 
of the debt and the acquirement by the Dominican Govern- 
ment of certain concessions and monopolies which have been 
a burden to the commerce of the country. In short, the 
receivership has demonstrated its ability, even under unfa- 



458 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

vorable economic and political conditions, to do the work 
for which it was intended. 

This Government was obliged to intervene diplomatically 
to bring: about arbitration or settlement of the claim of the 
Emery Company against Nicaragua, which it had long 
before been agreed should be arbitrated. A settlement of 
this troublesome case was reached by the signature of a 
protocol on September 18, 1909. 

Many years ago diplomatic intervention became necessary 
to the protection of the interests in the American claim of 
Alsop & Company against the Government of Chile. 
The Government of Chile had frequently admitted obligation 
in the case and had promised this Government to settle 
it. There had been two abortive attempts to do so through 
arbitral commissions, which failed through lack of jurisdic- 
tion. Now, happily, as the result of the recent diplomatic 
negotiations, the Governments of the United States and 
of Chile, actuated by the sincere desire to free from any 
strain those cordial and friendly relations upon which both 
set such store, have agreed by a protocol to submit the con- 
troversy to definitive settlement by His Britannic Majesty 
Edward VII. 

Since the Washington Conventions of 1907 were com- 
municated to the Government of the United States as a 
consulting and advising party, this Government has been 
almost continuously called upon by one or another, and in 
turn by all of the five Central American Republics, to exert 
itself for the maintenance of the conventions. Nearly every 
complaint has been against the Zelaya Government of Nic- 
aragua, which has kept Central America in constant tension 
or turmoil. The responses made to the representations of 
Central American Republics, as viewed from the United 
States on account of its relation to the Washington Con- 
ventions, have been at all times conservative and have avoided 
so far as possible any semblance of interference, although 



AND STATE PAPERS 459 

it is very apparent that the considerations of geographic 
proximity to the Canal Zone and of the very substantia] 
American interests in Central America give to the United 
States a special position in the zone of these republics 
and the Caribbean Sea. 

I need not rehearse here the patient efforts of this Govern- 
ment to promote peace and welfare among these republics, 
efforts which are fully appreciated by the majority of them 
who are loyal to their true interests. It would be no less 
unnecessary to rehearse here the sad tale of unspeakable 
barbarities and oppression alleged to have been committed 
by the Zelaya Government. Recently two Americans were 
put to death by order of President Zelaya himself. They 
were reported to have been regularly commissioned officers 
in the organized forces of a revolution which had continued 
many weeks and was in control of about half of the republic, 
and as such, according to the modern enlightened practice 
of civilized nations, they were entitled to be dealt with as 
prisoners of war. 

At the dale when this message is printed this Government 
has terminated diplomatic relations with the Zelaya Govern- 
ment, for reasons made public in a communication to the 
former Nicaraguan charge d'affaires, and is intending to 
take such future steps as may be found most consistent with 
its dignity, its duty to American interests, and its moral obliga- 
tions to Central America and to civilization. It may later 
be necessary for me l<> bring this subject to the attention 
of the Congros in a special message. 

The International Bureau of American Republics has 
carried on an important and increasing work during the last 
year. In the exercise of its peculiar functions as an inter- 
national agency, maintained by all the American Republics 
for the development of Pan-American commerce and friend- 
ship, il has accomplished a great practical good which could 
be done in the same way by no individual department or 
bureau of one government, and is therefore deserving of your 
liberal support. The fact that it is about to enter a new 



400 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

building, erected through the munificence of an American 
philanthropist and the contributions of all the American 
nations, where both its efficiency of administration and 
expense of maintenance will naturally be much augmented, 
further entitles it to special consideration. 

THE FAR EAST 

In the Far East this Government preserves unchanged its 
policy of supporting the principle of equality of opportunity 
and scrupulous respect for the integrity of the Chinese 
Empire, to which policy are pledged the interested powers 
of both East and West. 

By the Treaty of 1903 China has undertaken the abolition 
of likin with a moderate and proportionate raising of the 
customs tariff along with currency reform. These reforms 
being of manifest advantage to foreign commerce as well 
as to the interests of China, this Government is endeavoring 
to facilitate these measures and the needful acquiescence of 
the treaty powers. When it appeared that Chinese likin 
revenues were to be hypothecated to foreign bankers in 
connection with a great railway project, it was obvious 
that the governments whose nationals held this loan 
would have a certain direct interest in the question of 
the carrying out by China of the reforms in question. 
Because this railroad loan represented a practical and 
real application of the "open door" policy through co- 
operation with China by interested powers as well as 
because of its relations to the reforms referred to above, 
the Administration deemed American participation to be 
of great national interest. Happily, when it was as a 
matter of broad policy urgent that this opportunity should 
not be lost, the indispensable instrumentality presented itself 
when a group of American bankers, of international reputa- 
tion and great resources, agreed at once to share in the loan 
upon precisely such terms as this Government should approve. 
The chief of those terms was that American railway material 
should be upon an exact equality with that of the other 



AND STATE PAPERS 461 

nationals joining in the loan in the placing of orders for this 
whole railroad system. After months of negotiation the 
equal participation of Americans seems at last assured. 
It is gratifying that Americans will thus take their share in 
this extension of these great highways of trade, and to believe 
that such activities will give a real impetus to our commerce 
and will prove a practical corollary to our historic policy in 
the Far East. 

The Imperial Chinese Government in pursuance of its 
decision to devote funds from the portion of the indemnity 
remitted by the United States to the sending of students 
to this country has already completed arrangements for 
carrying out this purpose, and a considerable body of students 
have arrived to take up their work in our schools and univer- 
sities. No one can doubt the happy effect that the associa- 
tions formed by these representative young men will have 
when they return to take up their work in the progressive 
development of their country. 

The results of the Opium Conference held at Shanghai last 
spring at the invitation of the United States have been laid 
before the Government. The report shows that China is 
making remarkable progress and admirable efforts toward 
the eradication of the opium evil and that the governments 
concerned have not allowed their commercial interests to 
interfere with a helpful cooperation in this reform. Collateral 
investigations of the opium question in this country lead 
me to recommend that the manufacture, sale, and use of 
opium and its derivatives in the United States should be so 
far as possible more rigorously controlled by legislation. 

In one of the Chinese-Japanese Conventions of September 
4 of this year there was a provision which caused considerable 
publie apprehension in that upon its face it was believed in 
some quarters to seek to establish a monopoly of mining 
privileges along the South Manchurian and Antung-Mukden 
Railroads, and thus to exclude Americans from a wide field 
of enterprise, to take part in which they were by treaty 
with China entitled. After a thorough examination of the 



462 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Conventions and of the several contextual documents, the 
Secretary of State reached the conclusion that no such 
monopoly was intended or accomplished. However, in 
view of the widespread discussion of this question, to confirm 
the view it had reached, this Government made inquiry of the 
Imperial Chinese and Japanese governments and received 
from each official assurance that the provision had no 
purpose inconsistent with the policy of equality of opportu- 
nity to which the signatories, in common with the United 
States, are pledged. 

Our traditional relations with the Japanese Empire con- 
tinue cordial as usual. As the representative of Japan, 
His Imperial Highness Prince Kuni visited the Hudson- 
Fulton Celebration. The recent visit of a delegation of 
prominent business men as guests of the chambers of com- 
merce of the Pacific Slope, whose representatives had been so 
agreeably received in Japan, will doubtless contribute to 
the growing trade across the Pacific, as well as to that mutual 
understanding which leads to mutual appreciation. The 
arrangement of 1908 for a cooperative control of the coming 
of laborers to the United States has proved to work satisfac- 
torily. The matter of a revision of the existing treaty 
between the United States and Japan which is terminable 
in 1912 is already receiving the study of both countries. 

The Department of State is considering the revision in 
whole or in part, of the existing treaty with Siam, which was 
concluded in 1856 and is now, in respect to many of its 
provisions, out-of-date. 

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

I earnestly recommend to the favorable action of the 
Congress the estimates submitted by the Department of State 
and most especially the legislation suggested in the Secretary 
of State's letter of this date whereby it will be possible to 
develop and make permanent the reorganization of the 
Department upon modern lines in a manner to make it a 
thoroughly efficient instrument in the furtherance of our 



AND STATE PAPERS 4G3 

foreign trade and of American interests abroad. The plan 
to have Divisions of Latin-American and Far Eastern 
Affairs and to institute a certain specialization in business 
with Europe and the Near East will at once commend itself. 
These politico-geographical divisions and the detail from the 
Diplomatic or Consular Service to the Department of a num- 
ber of men, who bring to the study of complicated problems 
in different parts of the world practical knowledge recently 
gained on the spot, clearly is of the greatest advantage to 
the Secretary of State in foreseeing conditions likely to arise 
and in conducting the great variety of correspondence and 
negotiation. It should be remembered that such facilities 
exist in the foreign offices of all the leading commercial 
nations and that to deny them to the Secretary of State would 
be to place this Government at a great disadvantage in the 
rivalry of commercial competition. 

The Consular Service has been greatly improved under 
the law of April 5, 1900, and the Executive Order of June 
27, 1906, and I commend to your consideration the question 
of embodying in a statute the principles of the present 
executive order upon which the efficiency of our Consular 
Service is wholly dependent. 

In modern times political and commercial interests are 
interrelated, and in the negotiation of commercial treaties, 
conventions, and tariff agreements the keeping open of 
opportunities and the proper support of American enter- 
prises, our Diplomatic Service is quite as important as the 
Consular Service to the business interests of the country. 
Impressed with this idea and convinced that selection after 
rigorous examination, promotion for merit solely and the 
experience only to be gained through the continuity of an 
organized service are indispensable to a high degree of effi- 
ciency in the Diplomatic Service, I have signed an executive 
order as the first step toward this very desirable result. 
Its effect should be to place all secretaries in the Diplomatic 
Service in much the same position as consular officers 
are now placed and to tend to the promotion of the most 



464 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

efficient to the grade of minister, generally leaving for outside 
appointment such posts of the grade of ambassador or 
minister as it may be expedient to fill from without the 
service. It is proposed also to continue the practice instituted 
last summer of giving to all newly appointed secretaries at 
least one month's thorough training in the Department of 
State before they proceed to their posts. This has been 
done for some time in regard to the Consular Service with 
excellent results. 

Under a provision of the act of August 5, 1909, I have 
appointed three officials to assist the officers of the Govern- 
ment in collecting information necessary to a wise adminis- 
tration of the tariff act of August 5, 1909. As to questions 
of customs administration they are cooperating with the 
officials of the Treasury Department and as to matters of 
the needs and the exigencies of our manufacturers and 
exporters, with the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
in its relation to the domestic aspect of the subject of foreign 
commerce. In the study of foreign tariff treatment they 
will assist the Bureau of Trade Relations of the Department 
of State. It is hoped thus to coordinate and bring to bear 
upon this most important subject all the agencies of the 
Government which can contribute anything to its efficient 
handling. 

As a consequence of Section 2 of the tariff act of August 5, 
1909, it becomes the duty of the Secretary of State to con- 
duct as diplomatic business all the negotiations necessary 
to place him in a position to advise me as to whether or not 
a particular country unduly discriminates against the United 
States in the sense of the statute referred to. The great 
scope and complexity of this work, as well as the obligation 
to lend all proper aid to our expanding commerce, is met 
by the expansion of the Bureau of Trade Relations as set 
forth in the estimates for the Department of State. 

I have thus in some detail described the important trans- 
actions of the State Department since the beginning of this 
Administration for the reason that there is no provision 



AND STATE PAPERS 465 

either by statute or custom for a formal report by the Sec- 
retary of State to the President or to Congress and a Presi- 
dential message is the only means by which the condition 
of our foreign relations is brought to the attention of Congress 
and the public. 

OTHER DEPARTMENTS 

In dealing with the affairs of the other Departments, the 
heads of which all submit annual reports, I shall touch only 
those matters that seem to me to call for special mention 
on my part without minimizing in any way the recommenda- 
tions made by them for legislation affecting their respective 
Departments, in all of which I wish to express my general 
concurrence. 

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES AND REVENUES 

Perhaps the most important question presented to this 
Administration is that of economy in expenditures and 
sufficiency <>f revenue. The deficit of the last fiscal year, 
and the certain deficit of the current year, prompted Congress 
to throw a greater responsibility on the Executive and the 
Secretary of the Treasury than had heretofore been declared 
by statute This declaration imposes upon the Secretary 
of the Treasury the duly of assembling all the estimates of 
the Executive Departments, bureaus, and offices, of the 
expenditures necessary in the ensuing fiscal year, and of 
making an estimate of the revenues of the Government for 
the same period; and if a probable deficit is thus shown, it 
is made the duty of the President to recommend the method 
by which such deficit can be met. 

The reporl of the Secretary shows that the ordinary 
expenditures for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, 
will exceed the estimated receipts by $34,075,620. If to this 
deficit is added the sum to be disbursed for the Panama 
Canal, amounting to $38,000,000, and $1,000,000 to be paid 
on the public debt, the deficit of ordinary receipts and 
expenditures will be increased to a total deficit of $73,075,620. 



466 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

This deficit the Secretary proposes to meet by the proceeds 
of bonds issued to pay the cost of constructing the Panama 
Canal. I approve this proposal. 

The policy of paying for the construction of the Panama 
Canal, not out of current revenue, but by bond issues, was 
adopted in the Spooner Act of 1902, and there seems to be 
no good reason for departing from the principle by which 
a part at least of the burden of the cost of the canal shall 
fall upon our posterity who are to enjoy it; and there is all 
the more reason for this view because, to date, the actual cost 
of the canal, which is now half done and which will be 
completed January 1, 1915, shows that the cost of engineering 
and construction will be $297,766,000, instead of $139,705,200 
as originally estimated. In addition to engineering and 
construction, the other expenses, including sanitation and 
government, and the amount paid for the properties, the 
franchise, and the privilege of building the canal, increase 
the cost by $75,435,000, to a total of $375,201,000. The 
increase in the cost of engineering and construction is due 
to a substantial enlargement of the plan of construction by 
widening the canal 100 feet in the Culebra cut and by increas- 
ing the dimensions of the locks, to the underestimate of the 
quantity of the work to be done under the original plan, and 
to an underestimate of the cost of labor and materials both 
of which have greatly enhanced in price since the original 
estimate was made. 

In order to avoid a deficit for the ensuing fiscal year, I 
directed the heads of Departments in the preparation of their 
estimates to make them as low as possible consistent with 
imperative governmental necessity. The result has been, 
as I am advised by the Secretary of the Treasury, that the 
estimates for the expenses of the Government for the next 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, are less than the appro- 
priations for this current fiscal year by $42,818,000. So 
far as the Secretary of the Treasury is able to form a 
judgment as to future income, and compare it with the 
expenditures for the next fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, 



AND STATE PAPERS 467 

and excluding payments on account of the Panama Canal, 
which will doubtless be taken up by bonds, there will be a 
surplus of $35,931,000. 

In the present estimates the needs of the Departments and 
of the Government have been cut to the quick, so to speak, 
and any assumption on the part of Congress, so often made 
in times past, that the estimates have been prepared with the 
expectation that they may be reduced, will result in seriously 
hampering proper administration. 

The Secretary of the Treasury points out what should 
be carefully noted in respect to this reduction in govern- 
mental expenses for the next fiscal year, that the economies are 
of two kinds — first, there is a saving in the permanent admin- 
istration of the Departments, bureaus, and offices of the 
Government; and, second, there is a present reduction in 
expenses by a postponement of projects and improvements 
that ultimately will have to be carried out, but which are now 
delayed with the hope that additional revenue in the future 
will permit their execution without producing a deficit. 

It has been impossible in the preparation of estimates 
greatly to reduce the cost of permanent administration. 
This "can not be done without a thorough reorganization 
of bureaus, offices, and departments. For the purpose of 
securing information which may enable the executive and 
legislative branches to unite in a plan for the permanent 
reduction of the cost of governmental administration, the 
Treasury Department has instituted an investigation by one 
of the most skilled expert accountants in the United States. 
The result of his work in two or three bureaus, which, if 
extended to the entire Government, must occupy two or 
more years, has been to show much room for improvement 
and opportunity for substantial reductions in the cost and 
increased efficiency of administration. The object of the 
investigation is to devise means to increase the average 
efficiency of each employee. There is great room for 
improvement toward this end, not only by the reorgan- 
ization of bureaus and departments and in the avoidance 



468 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of duplication, but also in the treatment of the individual 
employee. 

Under the present system it constantly happens that two 
employees receive the same salary when the work of one is 
far more difficult and important and exacting than that of 
the other. Superior ability is not rewarded or encouraged. 
As the clarsification is now entirely by salary, an employee 
often rises to the highest class while doing the easiest work, 
for which alone, he may be fitted. An investigation ordered 
by my predecessor resulted in the recommendation that the 
civil service be reclassified according to the kind of work, 
so that the work requiring most application and knowledge 
and ability shall receive most compensation. I believe such 
a change would be fairer to the whole force and would 
permanently improve the personnel of the service. 

More than this, every reform directed toward the improve- 
ment in the average efficiency of government employees 
must depend on the ability of the Executive to eliminate from 
the government service those who are inefficient from any 
cause, and as the degree of efficiency in all the Departments 
is much lessened by the retention of old employees who 
have outlived their energy and usefulness, it is indispensable 
to any proper system of economy that provision be made 
so that their separation from the service shall be easy and 
inevitable. It is impossible to make such provision unless 
there is adopted a plan of civil pensions. 

Most of the great industrial organizations, and many 
of the well-conducted railways of this country, are coming 
to the conclusion that a system of pensions for old employees, 
and the substitution therefor of younger and more energetic 
servants promotes both economy and efficiency of admin- 
istration. 

I am aware that there is a strong feeling in both Houses 
of Congress, and possibly in the country, against the estab- 
lishment of civil pensions, and that this has naturally grown 
out of the heavy burden of military pensions, which it has 
always been the policy of our Government to assume; but 



AND STATE PAPERS 469 

I am strongly convinced that no other practical solution 
of the difficulties presented by the superannuation of civil 
servants can be found than that of a system of civil pensions. 

The business and expenditures of the Government have 
expanded enormously since the Spanish War, but as the rev- 
enues have increased in nearly the same proportion as the 
expenditures until recently, the attention of the public, 
and of those responsible for the Government, has not been 
fastened upon the question of reducing the cost of adminis- 
tration. We can not, in view of the advancing prices of living, 
hope to save money by a reduction in the standard of salaries 
paid. Indeed, if any change is made in that regard, an 
increase rather than a decrease will be necessary; and the 
only means of economy will be in reducing the number of 
employees and in obtaining a greater average of efficiency 
from those retained in the service. 

Close investigation and study needed to make definite 
recommendations in this regard will consume at least two 
years. I note with much satisfaction the organization in 
the Senate of a Committee on Public Expenditures, charged 
with the duly of conducting such an investigation, and I 
tender to that Committee all the assistance which the 
executive branch of the Government can possibly render. 

FRAUDS IN THE COLLECTION OF CUSTOMS 

I regret to refer to the fact of the discovery of extensive 
frauds in the collection of the customs revenue at New York 
City, in which a number of the subordinate employees in 
the weighing and other departments were directly concerned, 
and in which the beneficiaries were the American Sugar 
Refining Company and others. The frauds consisted in 
the payment of duty on underweights of sugar. The Govern- 
ment has recovered from the American Sugar Refining 
Company all that it is shown to have been defrauded of. 
The sum was received in full of the amount due, which might 
have been recovered by civil suit against the beneficiary 
of the fraud, but there was an express reservation in the 



470 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

contract of settlement by which the settlement should hot 
interfere with, or prevent the criminal prosecution of every 
one who was found to be subject to the same. 

Criminal prosecutions are now proceeding against a 
number of the Government officers. The Treasury Depart- 
ment and the Department of Justice are exerting every 
effort to discover all the wrongdoers, including the officers 
and employees of the companies who may have been privy to 
the fraud. It would seem to me that an investigation of 
the frauds by Congress at present, pending the probing by 
the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice, 
as proposed, might by giving immunity and otherwise prove 
an embarrassment in securing conviction of the guilty 
parties. 

MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM CLAUSE IN TARIFF ACT 

Two features of the new tariff act call for special reference. 
By virtue of the clause known as the "Maximum and 
Minimum" clause, it is the duty of the Executive to consider 
the laws and practices of other countries with reference to 
the importation into those countries of the products and 
merchandise of the United States, and if the Executive finds 
such laws and practices not to be unduly discriminatory 
against the United States, the minimum duties provided in 
the bill are to go into force. Unless the President makes 
such a finding, then the maximum duties provided in the bill, 
that is, an increase of twenty-five per cent, ad valorem over 
the minimum duties, are to be in force. Fear has been 
expressed that this power conferred and duty imposed on 
the Executive is likely to lead to a tariff war. I beg to 
express the hope and belief that no such result need be 
anticipated. 

The discretion granted to the Executive by the term 
"unduly discriminatory" is wide. In order that the maxi- 
mum duty shall be charged against the imports from a country 
not only discriminations in its laws or the practice under 
them against the trade of the United States, but that the 



AND STATE PAPERS 471 

discriminations found shall be undue; that is, without good 
and fair reason. I conceive that this power was reposed in 
the President with the hope that the maximum duties might 
never be applied in any case, but that the power to apply 
them would enable the President and the State Department 
through friendly negotiation to secure the elimination from 
the laws and the practice under them of any foreign country 
of that which is unduly discriminatory. No one is seeking 
a tariff war or a condition in which the spirit of retaliation 
shall be aroused. 

uses of Tin; new tariff board 

The new tariff law enables me to appoint a tariff board 
to assist me in connection with the Department of State 
in the administration of the maximum and minimum clause 
of the acl and also to assist officers of the Government in 
the administration of the entire law. An examination of 
the law and an understanding of the nature of the facts 
which should be considered in discharging the functions 
imposed upon the Executive show that I have the power 
to direct the tariff board to make a comprehensive glossary 
and encyclopedia of the terms used and articles embraced 
in the tariff law, and to secure information as to the cost of 
production of such goods in this country and the cost of their 
production in foreign countries. I have therefore appointed 
a tariff board consisting of three members and have directed 
them to perform all I he duties above described. This work 
will perhaps take two or three years, and I ask from Con- 
gress a continuing annual appropriation equal to that already 
made for its prosecution. I believe that the work of this 
board will be of prime utility and importance whenever 
Congress shall deem it wise again to readjust the customs 
duties. If the facts secured by the tariff board are of such 
a character as to show generally that the rates of duties 
imposed by the present tariff law are excessive under the 
principles of protection as described in the platform of the 
successful party at the late election, I shall not hesitate to 



472 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

invite the attention of Congress to this fact and to the neces- 
sity for action predicated thereon. Nothing, however, halts 
business and interferes with the course of prosperity so much 
as the threatened revision of the tariff, and until the facts 
are at hand, after careful and deliberate investigation, upon 
which such revision can properly be undertaken, it seems to 
me unwise to attempt it. The amount of misinformation 
that creeps into arguments pro and con in respect to tariff 
rates is such as to require the kind of investigation that I 
have directed the tariff board to make, an investigation under- 
taken by it wholly without respect to the effect which the 
facts may have in calling for a readjustment of the rates 
of duty. 

WAR DEPARTMENT 

In the interest of immediate economy and because of the 
prospect of a deficit, I have required a reduction in the 
estimates of the War Department for the coming fiscal 
year, which brings the total estimates down to an amount 
forty-five millions less than the corresponding estimates 
for last year. This could only be accomplished by cutting 
off new projects and suspending for the period of one year 
all progress in military matters. For the same reason I have 
directed that the Army shall not be recruited up to its present 
authorized strength. These measures can hardly be more 
than temporary — to last until our revenues are in better 
condition and until the whole question of the expediency 
of adopting a definite military policy can be submitted to 
Congress, for I am sure that the interests of the military 
establishment are seriously in need of careful consideration 
by Congress. The laws regulating the organization of our 
armed forces in the event of war need to be revised in order 
that the organization can be modified so as to produce a 
force which would be more consistently apportioned through- 
out its numerous branches. To explain the circumstances 
upon which this opinion is based would necessitate a lengthy 
discussion, and I postpone it until the first convenient 



VXD STATE PAPERS 473 

opportunity shall arise to send to Congress a special message 
upon this subject. 

The Secretary of War calls attention to a number of needed 
changes in the Army in all of which I concur, but the point 
upon which I place most emphasis is the need for an elimina- 
tion bill providing a .method by which the merits of officers 
shall have sonic effect upon their advancement and by which 
the advancement of all may be accelerated by the effective 
elimination of a definite proportion of the least efficient. 
There are in every army, and certainly in ours, a number 
of officers who do not violate their duty in any such way 
as to give reason for a court-martial or dismissal, but who 
do not show such aptitude and skill and character for high 
command as to justify their remaining in the active service 
to be promoted. Provision should be made by which they 
may be retired on a certain proportion of their pay, increasing 
with their length of service at the time of retirement. There 
is now a personnel law for the Navy which itself needs amend- 
ment and lo which I shall make further reference. Such a 
law is needed quite as much for the Army. 

The coast defenses of the United Slates proper are generally 
all that could be desired, and in some respects they are rather 
more elaborate than under present conditions are needed to 
stop an enemy's licet from entering the harbors defended. 
There is, however, one place where additional defense is 
badly needed, and that is at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, 
where it is proposed to make an artificial island for a 
fort which shall prevent an enemy's fleet from entering 
this most important strategical base of operations on the 
whole Atlantic and Gulf coasts. I hope that appropriate 
legislation will be adopted to secure the construction of 
this defense. 

The Military and Naval Joint Board have unanimously 
agreed that it would be unwise to make the large expenditures 
which at one time were contemplated in the establishment 
of a naval base and station in the Philippine Islands, and 
have expressed their judgment, in which I fully concur, in 



474 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

favor of making an extensive naval base at Pearl Harbor, 
near Honolulu, and not in the Philippines. This does not 
dispense with the necessity for the comparatively small 
appropriations required to finish the proper coast defenses 
in the Philippines now under construction on the island of 
Corregidor and elsewhere or to complete a suitable repair 
station and coaling supply station at Olongapo, where is the 
floating dock "Dewey." I hope that this recommendation 
of the joint board will end the discussion as to the compara- 
tive merits of Manila Bay and Olongapo as naval stations, 
and will lead to prompt measures for the proper equipment 
and defense of Pearl Harbor. 

THE NAVY 

The return of the battle-ship fleet from its voyage around 
the world, in more efficient condition than when it started, 
was a noteworthy event of interest alike to our citizens and 
the naval authorities of the world. Besides the beneficial 
and far-reaching effect on our personal and diplomatic 
relations in the countries which the fleet visited, the marked 
success of the ships in steaming around the world in all 
weathers on schedule time has increased respect for our 
Navy and has added to our national prestige. 

Our enlisted personnel recruited from all sections of the 
country is young and energetic and representative of the 
national spirit. It is, moreover, owing to its intelligence, 
capable of quick training into the modern man-of-warsmen. 
Our officers are earnest and zealous in their profession, but 
it is a regrettable fact that the higher officers are old for the 
responsibilities of the modern navy, and the admirals do not 
arrive at flag rank young enough to obtain adequate training 
in their duties as flag officers. This need for reform in the 
Navy has been ably and earnestly presented to Congress by 
my predecessor, and I also urgently recommend the subject 
for consideration. 

Early in the coming session a comprehensive plan for 
the reorganization of the officers of all corps of the Navy 



AND STATE PAPERS 475 

will be presented to Congress, and I hope it will meet with 
action suited to its urgency. 

Owing to the necessity for economy in expenditures, I have 
directed the curtailment of recommendations for naval 
appropriations so that they are thirty-eight millions less than 
the corresponding estimates of last year, and the request for 
new naval construction is limited to two first-class battle- 
ships and one repair vessel. 

The use of a navy is for military purposes, and there has 
been found need in the Department of a military branch deal- 
ing directly with the military use of the fleet. The Secretary 
of the Navy has also felt the lack of responsible advisers to 
aid him in reaching conclusions and deciding important 
matters between coordinate branches of the Department. 
To secure these results he has inaugurated a tentative plan 
involving certain changes in the organization of the Navy 
Department, including the navy yards, all of which have 
been found by the Attorney-General to be in accordance 
with law. I have approved the execution of the plan 
proposed because of the greater efficiency and economy it 
promises. 

The generosity of Congress has provided in the present 
Naval Observatory, the most magnificent and expensive 
astronomical establishment in the world. It is being used 
for certain naval purposes which might easily and adequately 
be subserved by a small division connected with the Navy 
Department at only a fraction of the cost of the present 
Naval Observatory. The Official Board of Visitors estab- 
lished by Congress and appointed in 1901 expressed its 
conclusion that the official head of the observatory should be 
an eminent astronomer appointed by the President by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, holding his place 
by a tenure at least as permanent as that of the Superintend- 
ent of the Coast Survey or the head of the Geological Survey, 
and not merely by a detail of two or three years' duration. I 
fully concur in this judgment, and urge a provision by law 
for the appointment of such a director. 



476 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

It may not be necessary to take the observatory out of the 
Navy Department and put it into another department in 
which opportunity for scientific research afforded by the 
observatory would seem to be more appropriate, though I 
believe such a transfer in the long run is the best policy. 
I am sure, however, I express the desire of the astronomers 
and those learned in the kindred sciences when I urge 
upon Congress that the Naval Observatory be now dedicated 
to science under control of a man of science who can, if need 
be, render all the service to the Navy Department which this 
observatory now renders, and still furnish to the world the 
discoveries in astronomy that a great astronomer using such 
a plant would be likely to make. 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 

Expedition in Legal Procedure 

The deplorable delays in the administration of civil and 
criminal law have received the attention of committees of the 
American Bar Association and of many state bar associa- 
tions, as well as the considered thought of judges and jurists. 
In my judgment, a change in judicial procedure, with a view 
to reducing its expense to private litigants in civil cases and 
facilitating the dispatch of business and final decision in 
both civil and criminal cases, constitutes the greatest need in 
our American institutions. I do not doubt for one moment 
that much of the lawless violence and cruelty exhibited 
in lynchings is directly due to the uncertainties and injustice 
growing out of the delays in trials, judgments, and the execu- 
tions thereof by our courts. Of course these remarks apply 
quite as well to the administration of justice in State courts 
as to that in Federal courts, and without making invidious 
distinction it is perhaps not too much to say that, speaking 
generally, the defects are less in the Federal courts than the 
State courts. But they are very great in the Federal courts. 
The expedition with which business is disposed of both 
on the civil and the criminal side of English courts under 



AND STATE PAPERS 477 

modern rules of procedure makes the delays in our courts 
seem archaic and barbarous. The procedure in the Federal 
courts should furnish an example for the State courts. I 
presume it is impossible, without an amendment to the Con- 
stitution, to unite under one form of action the proceedings 
at common law and proceedings in equity in the Federal 
courts, but it is certainly not impossible by a statute to 
simplify and make short and direct the procedure both at 
law and in equity in those courts. It is not impossible to 
cut down still more than it is cut down, the jurisdiction of the 
Supreme Court so as to confine it almost wholly to statutory 
and constitutional questions. Under the present statutes 
the equity and admiralty procedure in the Federal courts 
is under the control of the Supreme Court, but in the pressure 
of business to which that court is subjected it is impossible 
to hope that a radical and proper reform of the Federal equity 
procedure can be brought about. I therefore recommend 
legislation providing for the appointment by the President 
of a commission with authority to examine the law and equity 
procedure of the Federal courts of first instance, the law of 
appeals from those courts to the courts of appeals and to the 
Supreme Court, and the costs imposed in such procedure 
upon the private litigants and upon the public treasury 
and make recommendation with a view to simplifying 
and expediting the procedure as far as possible and 
making it as inexpensive as maybe to the litigant of little 
means. 

Injunction* Without Notice 

The platform of the successful party in the last election 
contained the following: 

"The Republican party will uphold at all times the 
authority and integrity of the courts, State and Federal, and 
will ever insist that their powers to enforce their process 
and to protect life, liberty, and property shall be preserved 
inviolate. We believe, however, that the rules of pro- 



478 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

cedure in the Federal courts with respect to the issuance of 
the writ of injunction should be more accurately defined by 
statute, and that no injunction or temporary restraining order 
should be issued without notice, except where irreparable 
injury would result from delay, in which case a speedy 
hearing thereafter should be granted." 

I recommend that in compliance with the promise thus 
made, appropriate legislation be adopted. The ends of 
justice will best be met and the chief cause of complaint 
against ill-considered injunctions without notice will be 
removed by the enactment of a statute forbidding hereafter 
the issuing of any injunction or restraining order, whether 
temporary or permanent, by any Federal court, without 
previous notice and a reasonable opportunity to be heard 
on behalf of the parties to be enjoined; unless it shall appear 
to the satisfaction of the court that the delay necessary to 
give such notice and hearing would result in irreparable 
injury to the complainant and unless also the court shall 
from the evidence make a written finding, which shall be 
spread upon the court minutes, that immediate and irrepar- 
able injury is likely to ensue to the complainant, and 
shall define the injury, state why it is irreparable, and 
shall also indorse on the order issued the date and the 
hour of the issuance of the order. Moreover, every such 
injunction or restraining order issued without previous 
notice and opportunity by the defendant to be heard should 
by force of the statute expire and be of no effect after 
seven days from the issuance thereof or within any time 
less than that period which the court may fix, unless within 
such seven days or such less period, the injunction or 
order is extended or renewed after previous notice and 
opportunity to be heard. 

My judgment is that the passage of such an act which 
really embodies the best practice in equity and is very like the 
rule now in force in some courts will prevent the issuing of 
ill-advised orders of injunction without notice and will render 



AND STATE PAPERS 479 

such orders when issued much less objectionable by the short 
time which they may remain effective. 

Anti-Trust and Interstate Commerce Laws 

The jurisdiction of the general Government over inter- 
state commerce has led to the passage of the so-called 
"Sherman Anti-trust Law" and the "Interstate Commerce 
Law" and its amendments. The developments in the opera- 
tion of those laws, as shown by indictments, trials, judicial 
decisions, and other sources of information, call for a dis- 
cussion and some suggestions as to amendments. These I 
prefer to embody in a special message instead of including 
them in the present communication, and I shall avail myself 
of the first convenient opportunity to bring these subjects 
to the attention of Congress. 

Jail of the District of Columbia 

My predecessor transmitted to the Congress a special 
message on January 11, 1909, accompanying the report of 
Commissioners theretofore appointed to investigate the jail, 
workhouse, etc., in the District of Columbia, in which he 
directed attention to the report as setting forth vividly, 

"the really outrageous conditions in the workhouse and jail." 

The Congress has taken action in pursuance of the recom- 
mendations of that report and of the President, to the extent 
of appropriating funds and enacting the necessary legislation 
for the establishment of a workhouse and reformatory. 
No action, however, has been taken by the Congress with 
respect to the jail, the conditions of which still are antiquated 
and insanitary. I earnestly recommend the passage of a 
sufficient appropriation to enable a thorough remodeling 
of that institution to be made without delay. It is a reproach 
to the National Government that almost under the shadow 
of the Capitol dome prisoners should be confined in a build- 



480 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ing destitute of the ordinary decent appliances requisite to 
cleanliness and sanitary conditions. 

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT 

Second-Class Mail Matter 

The deficit every year in the Post-Office Department is 
largely caused by the low rate of postage of 1 cent a pound 
charged on second-class mail matter, which includes not only 
newspapers, but magazines and miscellaneous periodicals. 
The actual loss growing out of the transmission of this second- 
class mail matter at 1 cent a pound amounts to about 
$03,000,000 a year. The average cost of the transportation 
of this matter is more than 9 cents a pound. 

It appears that the average distance over which newspapers 
are delivered to their customers is 291 miles, while the average 
haul of magazines is 1,049, and of miscellaneous periodicals 
1,128 miles. Thus, the average haul of the magazine is 
three and one-half times and that of the miscellaneous period- 
ical nearly four times the haul of the daily newspaper, yet all 
of them pay the same postage rate of 1 cent a pound. The 
statistics of 1907 show that second-class mail matter con- 
stituted 63.91 per cent, of the weight of all the mail, and 
yielded only 5.19 per cent, of the revenue. 

The figures given are startling, and show the payment by 
the Government of an enormous subsidy to the newspapers, 
magazines, and periodicals, and Congress may well consider 
whether radical steps should not be taken to reduce the deficit 
in the Post-Office Department caused by this discrepancy 
between the actual cost of transportation and the compensa- 
tion exacted therefor. 

A great saving might be made, amounting to much more 
than half of the loss, by imposing upon magazines and 
periodicals a higher rate of postage. They are much heavier 
than newspapers, and contain a much higher proportion of 
advertising to reading matter, and the average distance of 
their transportation is three and a half times as great. 



AND STATE PAPERS 481 

The total deficit for the last fiscal year in the Post-Office 
Department amounted to $17,500,000. The branches of 
its business which it did at a loss were the second-class mail 
service, in which the loss, as already said, was $63,000,000, 
and the free rural delivery, in which the loss was $28,000,000. 
These losses were in part offset by the profits of the letter 
postage and other sources of income. It would seem wise 
to reduce the loss upon second-class mail matter at least 
to the extent of preventing a deficit in the total operations of 
the Post-Office. 

I commend the whole subject to Congress, not unmindful 
of the spread of intelligence which a low charge for carrying 
newspapers and periodicals assists. I very much doubt, 
however, the wisdom of a policy which constitutes so large a 
subsidy and requires additional taxation to meet it. 

Postal Savings Banks 

The second subject worthy of mention in the Post-Office 
Department is the real necessity and entire practicability 
of establishing postal savings banks. The successful party 
at the last election declared in favor of postal savings banks, 
and although the proposition finds opponents in many parts 
of the country. I am convinced that the people desire such 
banks, and am sure that when the banks are furnished they 
will be productive of the utmost good. The postal savings 
banks are not constituted for the purpose of creating com- 
petition with other banks. The rate of interest upon 
deposits to which they would be limited would be so 
small as to prevent their drawing deposits away from other 
banks. 

I believe them to be necessary in order to offer a proper 
inducement to thrift and saving to a great many people of 
small means who do not now have banking facilities, and to 
whom such a system would offer an opportunity for the 
accumulation of capital. They will furnish a satisfactory 
substitute, based on sound principle and actual successful 
trial in nearly all the countries of the world, for the system 



482 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of government guaranty of deposits now being adopted 
in several Western States, which with deference to those 
who advocate it seems to me to have in it the seeds of 
demoralization to conservative banking and certain financial 
disaster. 

The question of how the money deposited in postal savings 
banks shall be invested is not free from difficulty, but I 
believe that a satisfactory provision for this purpose was 
inserted as an amendment to the bill considered by the 
Senate at its last session. It has been proposed to delay 
the consideration of legislation establishing a postal savings 
bank until after the report of the Monetary Commission. 
This report is likely to be delayed, and properly so, because 
of the necessity for careful deliberation and close inves- 
tigation. I do not see why the one should be tied up with 
the other. It is understood that the Monetary Commission 
have looked into the systems of banking which now prevail 
abroad, and have found that by a control there exercised in 
respect to reserves and the rates of exchange by some central 
authority panics are avoided. It is not apparent that a 
system of postal savings banks would in any way interfere 
with a change to such a system here. Certainly in most of 
the countries in Europe where control is thus exercised by a 
central authority, postal savings banks exist and are not 
thought to be inconsistent with a proper financial and bank- 
ing system. 

Ship Subsidy 

Following the course of my distinguished predecessor, I 
earnestly recommend to Congress the consideration and pas- 
sage of a ship subsidy bill, looking to the establishment of 
lines between our Atlantic seaboard and the eastern coast 
of South America, as well as lines from the west coast of the 
United States to South America, China, Japan, and the 
Philippines. The profits on foreign mails are perhaps a 
sufficient measure of the expenditures which might first 
be tentatively applied to this method of inducing American 



AND STATE PAPERS 483 

capital to undertake the establishment of American lines of 
steamships in those directions in which we now feel it most 
important that we should have means of transportation con- 
trolled in the interest of the expansion of our trade. A bill 
of this character has once passed the House and more than 
once passed the Senate, and I hope that at this session a bill 
framed on the same lines and with the same purposes may 
become a law. 

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT 

New Mexico and Arizona 

The successful party in the last election in its national 
platform declared in favor of the admission as separate 
States of New Mexico and Arizona, and I recommend that 
legislation appropriate to this end be adopted. I urge, how- 
ever, that care be exercised in the preparation of the legislation 
affecting each territory to secure deliberation in the selection 
of persons as members of the convention to draft a constitu- 
tion for the incoming state, and I earnestly advise that such 
constitution after adoption by the convention shall be sub- 
mitted to the people of the territory for their approval 
at an election in which the sole issue shall be the merits of the 
proposed constitution, and if the constitution is defeated 
by popular vote means shall be provided in the enabling act 
for a new convention and the drafting of a new constitution. 
I think it vital that the issue as to the merits of the constitution 
should not be mixed up with the selection of state officers, 
and that no election of state officers should be had until after 
the constitution has been fully approved and finally settled 
upon. 

Alaska 

With respect to the Territory of Alaska, I recommend 
legislation which shall provide for the appointment by the 
President of a governor and also of an executive council, the 
members of which shall during their term of office reside in 



484 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the territory, and which shall have legislative powers suffi- 
cient to enable it to give to the territory local laws adapted 
to its present growth. I strongly deprecate legislation look- 
ing to the election of a territorial legislature in that vast 
district. The lack of permanence of residence of a large 
part of the present population and the small number of the 
people who either permanently or temporarily reside in 
the district as compared with its vast expanse and the variety 
of the interests that have to be subserved, make it altogether 
unfitting in my judgment to provide for a popular election of 
a legislative body. The present system is not adequate and 
does not furnish the character of local control that ought to 
be there. The only compromise, it seems to me, which may 
give needed local legislation and secure a conservative gov- 
ernment is the one I propose. 

Conservation of National Resources 

In several Departments there is presented the necessity 
for legislation looking to the further conservation of our 
national resources, and the subject is one of such importance 
as to require a more detailed and extended discussion than 
can be entered upon in this communication. For that 
reason I shall take an early opportunity to send a special mes- 
sage to Congress on the subject of the improvement of our 
waterways, upon the reclamation and irrigation of arid, 
semi-arid, and swamp lands; upon the preservation of our 
forests and the reforesting of suitable areas; upon the 
reclassification of the public domain with a view to separating 
from agricultural settlement mineral, coal, and phosphate 
lands and sites belonging to the Government bordering on 
streams suitable for the utilization of water power. 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

I commend to your careful consideration the report of 
the Secretary of Agriculture as showing the immense 
sphere of usefulness which that Department now fills 



AND STATE PAPERS 485 

and the wonderful addition to the wealth of the nation 
made by the farmers of this country in the crops of the 
current year. 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR 

The Light-House Board 

The Light-House Board now discharges its duties under 
the Department of Commerce and Labor. For upward 
of forty years this board has been constituted of military 
and naval officers and two or three men of science, with such 
an absence of a duly constituted executive head that it is 
marvelous what work has been accomplished. In the period 
of construction the energy and enthusiasm of all the members 
prevented the inherent defects of the system from interfering 
greatly with the beneficial work of the Board, but now that the 
work is chiefly confined to maintenance and repair, for which 
purpose the country is divided into sixteen districts, to which 
are assigned an engineer officer of the Army and an inspector 
of the Navy, each with a light-house tender and the needed 
plant for his work, it has become apparent by the frequent 
friction that arises, due to the absence of any central independ- 
ent authority, that there must be a complete reorganization 
of the Board. I concede the advantage of keeping in the 
system the rigidity of discipline that the presence of naval 
and military officers in charge insures, but unless the presence 
of such officers in the Board can be made consistent 
with a responsible executive head that shall have proper 
authority, I recommend the transfer of control over 
light-houses to a suitable civilian bureau. This is in 
accordance with the judgment of competent persons 
who are familiar with the workings of the present 
system. I am confident that a reorganization can be 
effected which shall avoid the recurrence of friction between 
members, instances of which have been officially brought to 
my attention, and that by such reorganization greater 



48G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

efficiency and a substantial reduction in the expense of 
operation can be brought about. 

Consolidation of Bureaus 

I request Congressional authority to enable the Secretary 
of Commerce and Labor to unite the Bureaus of Manufac- 
tures and Statistics. This was recommended by a competent 
committee appointed in the previous administration for the 
purpose of suggesting changes in the interest of economy 
and efficiency, and is requested by the Secretary. 

The White Slave Trade 

I greatly regret to have to say that the investigations made 
in the Bureau of Immigration and other sources of informa- 
tion lead to the view that there is urgent necessity for addi- 
tional legislation and greater executive activity to suppress 
the recruiting of the ranks of prostitutes from the streams of 
immigration into this country — an evil which, for want of 
a better name, has been called "The White Slave Trade." 
I believe it to be constitutional to forbid, under penalty, 
the transportation of persons for purposes of prostitution 
across national and state lines; and by appropriating a fund 
of $50,000 to be used by the Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor for the employment of special inspectors it will be 
possible to bring those responsible for this trade to indict- 
ment and conviction under a Federal law. 

BUREAU OF HEALTH 

For a very considerable period a movement has been 
gathering strength, especially among the members of the 
medical profession, in favor of a concentration of the instru- 
ments of the National Government which have to do with the 
promotion of public health. In the nature of things, the 
Medical Department of the Army and the Medical Depart- 
ment of the Navy must be kept separate. But there seems 
to be no reason why all the other bureaus and offices in the 
general Government which have to do with the public 



AND STATE PAPERS 487 

health or subjects akin thereto should not be united in a 
bureau to be called the "Bureau of Public Health." This 
would necessitate the transfer of the Marine-Hospital Service 
to such a bureau. I am aware that there is a wide field 
in respect to the public health committed to the States in 
which the Federal Government can not exercise jurisdic- 
tion, but we have seen in the Agricultural Department the 
expansion into widest usefulness of a department giving 
attention to agriculture when that subject is plainly one 
over which the States properly exercise direct jurisdiction. 
The opportunities offered for useful research and the spread 
of useful information in regard to the cultivation of the soil 
and the breeding of stock and the solution of many of the 
intricate problems in progressive agriculture have demon- 
strated the wisdom of establishing that department. Similar 
reasons, of equal force, can be given for the establishment 
of a bureau of health that shall not only exercise the police 
jurisdiction of the Federal Government respecting quaran- 
tine, but which shall also afford an opportunity for investiga- 
tion and research by competent experts into questions 
of health affecting the whole country, or important 
sections thereof, questions which, in the absence of 
Federal governmental work, are not likely to be promptly 
solved. 

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 

The work of the United States Civil Service Commission 
has been performed to the general satisfaction of the 
executive officers with whom the Commission has been 
brought into official communication. The volume of 
that work and variety and extent have under new 
laws, such as the Census Act, and new executive orders, 
greatly increased. The activities of the Commission 
required by the statutes have reached to every portion of 
the public domain. 

The accommodations of the Commission are most inade- 
quate for its needs. I call your attention to its request for 



488 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

increase In those accommodations as will appear from the 
annual report for this year. 

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 

I urgently recommend to Congress that a law be passed 
requiring that candidates in elections of Members of the 
House of Representatives, and committees in charge of 
their candidacy and campaign, file in a proper office of the 
United States Government a statement of the contributions 
received and of the expenditures incurred in the campaign 
for such elections, and that similar legislation be enacted in 
respect to all other elections which are constitutionally 
within the control of Congress. 

freedman's savings and trust company 

Recommendations have been made by my predecessors 
that Congress appropriate a sufficient sum to pay the balance 
— about 38 per cent. — of the amounts due depositors in 
the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company. I renew 
this recommendation, and advise also that a proper limitation 
be prescribed fixing a period within which the claims may be 
presented, that assigned claims be not recognized, and that 
a limit be imposed on the amount of fees collectible for 
services in presenting such claims. 

semicentennial of negro freedom 

The year 1913 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the 
issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation granting free- 
dom to the Negroes. It seems fitting that this event should 
be properly celebrated. Already a movement has been 
started by prominent Negroes, encouraged by prominent 
white people and the press. The South especially is mani- 
festing its interest in this movement. 

It is suggested that a proper form of celebration would 
be an exposition to show the progress the Negroes have 
made, not only during their period of freedom, but also 
from the time of their coming to this country. 

I heartily indorse this proposal, and request that the 



AND STATE PAPERS 489 

Executive be authorized to appoint a preliminary com- 
mission of not more than seven persons to consider carefully 
whether or not it is wise to hold such an exposition, and if 
so, to outline a plan for the enterprise. I further recommend 
that such preliminary commission serve without salary, 
except as to their actual expenses, and that an appropriation 
be made to meet such expenses. 

CONCLUSION 

I have thus, in a message compressed as much as the sub- 
jects will permit, referred to many of the legislative needs 
of the country, with the exceptions already noted. Speaking 
generally, the country is in a high state of prosperity. There 
is every reason to believe that we are on the eve of a substan- 
tial business expansion, and we have just garnered a harvest 
unexampled in the market value of our agricultural products. 
The high prices which such products bring mean great pros- 
perity for the farming community, but on the other hand 
they mean a very considerably increased burden upon those 
classes in the community whose yearly compensation does 
not expand with the improvement in business and the 
general prosperity. Various reasons are given for the 
high prices. The proportionate increase in the output of 
gold, which to-day is the chief medium of exchange and is 
in some respects a measure of value, furnishes a substantial 
explanation of at least part of the increase in prices. The 
increase in population and the more expensive mode of living 
of the people, which have not been accompanied by a propor- 
tionate increase in acreage production, may furnish a further 
reason. It is well to note that the increase in the cost of 
living is not confined to this country, but prevails the world 
over, and that those who would charge increases in prices 
to the existing protective tariff must meet the fact that the 
rise in prices has taken place almost wholly in those products 
of the factory and farm in respect to which there has been 
either no increase in the tariff or in many instances a very 
considerable reduction. 



LX 

ADDRESS AT THE SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION 
OF THE NATIONAL RIVERS AND HARBORS 
CONGRESS AT THE NEW WILLARD HOTEL, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(DECEMBER 8, 1909.) 

Mr. President, Members of the National Rivers and Harbors 
Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I DON'T know that I have any right to be here to talk 
about waterways, unless it makes a man an expert on 
the subject to have gone down the Mississippi River. The 
dangers to which one was exposed on that journey, by 
reason of the shoals and the other obstacles and temptations 
of the journey, certainly offered an opportunity for careful 
study and deliberation. Now I think I am a sufficiently 
established resident of Washington to make what I have to 
say an address of welcome. I am delighted that you selected 
Washington as your place of meeting. You have done it 
wisely, first, because when you want a thing done it is just 
as well to get close to the men who are to do it; and secondly, 
Washington is always a good place to come to, and you can 
induce the ladies of the family to come with you, which is 
always an assurance of both work and pleasure. 

I congratulate this Congress on having brought the subject 
of waterways to such a point that the Representatives in Con- 
gress, from one end of the country to the other, recognize it as 
a subject that calls for action. They have not come to a 
definite conclusion as to the policy that ought to be adopted, 
but they have come to the conclusion that some policy must be 
adopted with reference to the development of these instru- 

490 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 491 

mentalities which nature has furnished for the transportation 
of goods and for the controlling of railroad rates. 

You in your declaration say that you are in favor of a 
policy and not in favor of any particular project. I think 
that a wise platform to take; and yet when it comes to the 
practical enforcement and accomplishment of something, 
you have got to go into projects. You may insist that a 
policy ought to be adopted, and you have insisted, and I do 
not doubt that you have — indeed I know you have — made 
that distinguished member of Congress, the head of the 
Rivers and Harbors Committee, sit up nights to devise a 
policy which shall be presented to the country and satisfy the 
demand that has arisen in such a — I had almost said — 
unanimous way the country through. But you are coming 
now near to the detail of projects. 

One has to travel over the country to find out what the 
country is thinking about. You go into the Northwest and 
you find the development of the Columbia River as one of 
the great projects of many who live in that neighborhood. 
You go into far-distant Texas, and you find that they have an 
inland waterways project there reaching into Louisiana, 
into the bayous of Texas, and down along the Gulf, that has 
demonstrated its usefulness as to part, and that only needs 
further addition and improvement to carry out a great system 
of waterways there that shall reach farms and plantations 
that are even beyond railroads now. And so, as you come 
up the eastern shore of this country, you find the inland — 
I don't think they call it inland waterways exactly, but it is 
the inside waterway — the Atlantic Deeper Waterways 
Association. Now, it is well that there is in almost every 
part of the country a project of that sort to awaken the inter- 
ests of those who live in that part of the country, for while we 
are all patriots, and while we are all in favor of all the 
country, we are just a little more intensely in favor of that 
which is nearest than we are in favor of that which is very 
far away. The danger to this movement, the test of the 
value of the movement, is going to be seen when you get off 



402 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that very safe platform, that you are in favor of a policy 
and not in favor of a project, and get down to the business 
of pushing projects. 

One of the things that I think we ought to do is not to 
decry the past. It is to take from the past that which is 
valuable and build on it. The trip down the Mississippi 
River was an eye-opener to many of us. The work which 
has gone on at the end of the river and near its mouth, up 
along the banks in Mississippi and Louisiana, and up into 
Arkansas, is a work that commends itself to every one who 
sees it. It is work in the direction both of the preservation 
of farms and the establishment of a great waterway there. 
The work which has been done by the National Government 
through its army engineers in strengthening the banks of 
that river is a work of experimentation, but work which has 
now demonstrated the possibility of treating that river in 
such a way as to hold the banks and keep the river within 
it, and insuring a reasonable depth where steamers may go. 

Then we have had an investigation by the army engineers 
into the practicability of deepening to six feet the Missouri 
River, from Sioux City to St. Louis; of deepening the Mis- 
sissippi River from St. Paul to St. Louis; of deepening and 
keeping at an eight-foot depth the river from St. Louis to 
Cairo; and also of a project for the maintenance of a nine- 
foot depth the year round in the Ohio River. I recognize 
the gentlemen who applaud, as coming from the Columbia 
River district and illustrating that disinterested enthusiasm 
that is certain to carry all the projects through. 

Now I don't think I betray a secret when I say that the 
gentleman who has most to do with the initiation of projects 
in Congress is fully charged with the necessity for doing 
something: in the next Congress to foreshadow, or rather to 
begin, a policy with respect to those rivers. You have the 
Missouri, the upper Mississippi, the Mississippi between 
St. Louis and Cairo, and the Ohio between Pittsburg and 
Cairo, all of them satisfying the requirements that you have 
to put in your platform with respect to the improvement of the 



AND STATE PAPERS 493 

waterways. That is an improvement in the heart of the 
country, an improvement that reaches to more States than 
any other improvement that can be mentioned in this entire 
country. It affects not only the States along whose borders 
the improvements will be made, but it affects all the states 
along the borders of the Mississippi beyond Cairo, for the 
project will also include and must include the investment 
of a sufficient amount of money to keep the nine-foot stage 
always between Cairo and New Orleans. 

I am aware that there are a great many gentlemen in this 
country who are in favor of something more than nine feet 
between Cairo and the Gulf, but you must get nine 
feet before you get fourteen. When you once get that system 
that I have outlined into operation so as to show the benefits 
that can be derived from it, what will go on thereafter no 
man can foresee. The truth is that the engineers will tell you 
that after you have harnessed the Mississippi River by pro- 
tecting its banks, no man can tell what the depth of that river 
will be made by the river itself confined within reasonable 
banks. In other words, what I am urging, what I am labor- 
ing for, is something practical in the way of a moderate project 
in order that you may go on and gradually develop a larger 
project than that which was in your minds at its initiation — 
that you do something practical by taking the materials that 
you have, and as you go on and as the business increases, 
demonstrate to those in the country who are not so near to 
that improvement its advantage to the entire country in the 
reduction of railroad rates and in the actual transportation 
of that kind of business that the river will attract. 

Now speaking to this assembly — I think it w T as this 
assembly (we have got so many congresses in favor of so 
many good things that sometimes there is a little difficulty in 
distinguishing, and when you all meet together in Washington 
at the same time there is danger of mistaken identity as to 
associations) — but at any rate a year ago President Roose- 
velt and I were together on a platform before the Conserva- 
tion of Resources Convention,! think it was, in which we both 



494 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

advocated the issuing of bonds in order that a project improv- 
ing waterways when begun should be completed in a reason- 
able time. Now I am still a consistent advocate of that 
theory. I believe that the Government is entitled to as 
rapid a method of developing an enterprise and putting it 
through as private corporations, and as they always issue 
bonds, or generally do (some of them are fortunate enough 
not to have to), in order to expedite the completion of these 
projects,, it would seem wise for the Nation to do so where 
it will accomplish the same result. 

But I want to suggest a word of caution. You are going 
to encounter in Congress great opposition to the policy of 
issuing bonds right out of hand. You are much more likely 
to get from Congress a declaration of policy in the shape of 
a declaration that a certain improvement ought to be carried 
out and spread upon the minutes of Congress in the form 
of a resolution or a declaration in a statute. Now, what I 
advise you to do is to get that declaration. Then when the 
time comes that political exigency shall prevent the appro- 
priation of sufficient amounts from the current revenues to 
put the proper part of the project through the coming year 
or the coming two years as economy requires, the question 
of issuing bonds will arise. I would get the declaration 
first, and not have the bonds first, for the reason that you will 
encounter the objection of Congress that the issuing of 
bonds and the receipt of the money will develop a desire to 
be extravagant. That may not meet your views, but I have 
thought it over, and I know something about Congress. I 
know where you are going to encounter opposition, and I 
believe the best way is the natural way with those gentlemen. 
You lead them on to declare in favor of the Missouri 
improvement, in favor of the St. Louis to St. Paul improve- 
ment, in favor of the Cairo to St. Louis improvement, in 
favor of the Ohio improvement, all of which have been 
approved by the army engineers, and get them recorded 
in the statutes of this country as declaring that those things 
are to be carried out and let them make their first appro- 



AND STATE PAPERS 495 

priation from the revenues of the country, and then you have 
them where they must issue bonds, unless the revenues 
afford a sufficient amount each year to carry that project 
on economically and with due rapidity. 

I tell you, gentlemen, you are getting, as the boys and girls 
used to say in "finding the button " — you are getting warm. 
You are at a point where you can accomplish something if 
you don't stop it by doing it the wrong way. I don't feel 
justified in giving advice to a body like this on a subject which 
they have studied so much, or, I should not feel it except that 
I have had pretty close association as Secretary of War and 
otherwise with the army engineers, who have given their 
lives to the study of these improvements. 

I know those army engineers very well. Doubtless 
you do, as you have met them in the districts to which they 
were assigned. I venture to say that in your whole experience 
you have never met men of a higher standard of character, 
of a higher devotion to public duty, and of greater skill in 
their profession than those same army engineers. They 
are selected from the first ten or the first five of the graduates 
of West Point, and they have a little ring in the Army, which 
I might betray to you by reason of some inside information. 
If a class comes out that has not developed very good material 
in the way of engineers and mathematicians, somehow or 
other the Chief of Engineers advises the Secretary of War that 
for that year they do not need any particular addition to the 
corps; and so it is that they have acquired a greater propor- 
tion of the mathematical and engineering ability of those who 
graduated from West Point than they really were entitled 
to. They have gone on, and, with but one exception, their 
record is clear, in the honesty, and I had almost said the 
severity, with which they have expended the Government's 
funds, and have seen to their being put into material at a 
cost which was an honest cost. But it has been said that 
they were crotchety; that at times they did not apparently 
catch the sound of progress; that they were slow sometimes 
in the building up of improvements. I am not prepared to 



49G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

say that those criticisms with reference to individuals were 
not well founded. You can not take a great corps like that, 
numbering as it does a great many officers within it, and not 
find men who fail to keep up with the procession, but I am 
very sure from talking with General Marshall and with a 
number of the other men at the head of the corps that they 
are fully charged with the increased interest in this country 
among the people and among the business men in the develop- 
ment of the inland waterways, and that you could not have 
a safer body of men to advise than the army engineers. 

I count it one of the great good fortunes of this country that 
when the country had to build the Panama Canal, after using 
the great ability of civil engineers, we finally settled down 
upon the army engineers to carry that project through. 

So it is with respect to the waterways. They have recom- 
mended to the chairman of the waterways committee in the 
House a system of improvements that I believe will meet the 
judgment of this convention, if it be moderated to the 
possibilities of what can be accomplished. I think you can 
secure upon the statute books of this country a declaration in 
favor of continuing contracts to build the four or five pro- 
jects which the engineers have recommended, in such a way, 
even if you do not get the bonds voted at first, that if the 
time arises when the revenues will not permit their use, I 
mean the current revenues, to continue that work with rea- 
sonable rapidity, you can move upon the Government for 
the issuing of bonds. I would make the fight for bonds 
when the conditions strengthen the argument in their favor. 
It is a strong argument that you will have to meet; that if 
you are going to issue a large amount of bonds just for the 
purpose of putting them into the waterways as their necessity 
may develop, then there is a temptation to extravagance. 
Perhaps it is my judicial experience, but I always feel as if 
you ought to shape your policy in order to win, not according 
to the enthusiastic suggestions of your imagination, but in 
order to overcome the obstacles that you are likely to 
encounter in winning the end which you seek. 



AND STATE PAPERS 497 

And, now, ladies and gentlemen, I am very much obliged 
to you for giving me such attention. I realize that what I 
have said comes from the lips of a mere tyro, but it comes 
from one who has some temporary responsibility in respect 
to the matter, and from one who is thoroughly in sympathy 
with the general object which you seek here, to wit, the 
development of all the waterways of this country by a general 
policy in such a way as to reduce and control railroad rates 
and in such a way as to stimulate upon the bosom of the 
waters the transportation of such merchandise as is peculiarly 
fitted to that character of carriage. 



LXI 

REMARKS TO THE OHIO VALLEY IMPROVEMENT 
ASSOCIATION, AT THE WHITE HOUSE 

(DECEMBER 9, 1909) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 

THIS is the first time in my life I can remember that I 
am sorry I am from Ohio. It is because, coming 
from Ohio, I can not make my recommendation in respect 
to the necessity for the improvement of the Ohio as strong 
as I might if I had not come from Ohio, for my motives will 
be questioned. You gentlemen who figure in private life 
do not have to encounter that. Those of us who do are 
rapidly getting used to it. 

With respect to the Ohio improvement, it is the first one 
out of all the conventions, out of all the oratory and out of 
all the indefinite nebulous appeals for waterways that has 
a definite scope, a plain reason for being, a clear estimate of 
cost and a plain possibility of execution. You have six 
locks now completed, and where those six locks operate, the 
success of the system of slack water has been demonstrated. 
You have seven locks under construction, and there are fifty- 
four locks in all necessary to establish slack water at nine 
feet the year round from Pittsburg to Cairo, and that 
improvement in the long run is to cost — I should not say in 
the long run, for no one knows how much it would cost in 
the long run — but under the present estimates of engineers, if 
done with business-like rapidity, it would cost $63,000,000. 

There is an additional advantage in this proposal. 

I have not looked into waterways very much, but I have 
gathered the impression from such reading and discussion 
as I have been able to do and to hear, that it does not always 

498 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 499 

follow because you have waterways with sufficient depth for 
steamers, for barges and for other transportation, that you 
are going to attract business on that waterway. The ques- 
tion is, whether you have the kind of business that the water- 
way will attract. In Europe I am told that there are rivers 
on which the traffic is all up-stream, or largely so, because 
the merchandise and material to be carried are at the mouth 
of the stream; and the place where they are to be landed is 
along near its sources, and that those steamers after carrying 
up the stream the material to be used come down partly 
empty, which is an indication that in order to justify improve- 
ments of this sort, those who contend for them must point 
out the utility by showing the proper business to be done. 

Now, in respect to the Ohio improvement you have the 
present business. You can point to your coal mines and 
to your heavy products of manufacture in Pittsburg and 
throughout that neighborhood which can be carried cheaply 
down the Ohio River clear to the mouth and to the Gulf; 
and having the business and having the estimate and having 
the water and having the plans, there is not any reason why 
improvement should not be made. 

I observe that there are a number of gentlemen who think 
that I cast a wet blanket over the convention yesterday by 
what I said there. I did not intend to do so. I only intended 
to help it along by pointing out the practical method of 
accomplishing what yon arc here for. 

You have had enough experience with Congress to know 
that it is sui generis to have to deal with it as a body dif- 
ferent from any other body, as it is different from any other 
body, being representative of three hundred and ninety-one 
districts of the United States, with differing interests and 
differing views. When you approach Congress with a pro- 
posal for the issuing of bonds, you are going to arouse great 
opposition and that opposition will arise and demand why, 
and they will demand an answer not in general expressions, 
not in resounding oratory, but they will want facts and 
estimates and a statement of something definitely useful into 



500 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

which they are going to put their money which they may 
even have to borrow in order to carry through the enterprise. 
You in the Ohio Valley have an enterprise in respect to 
which you can give the sufficient answers. All I can hope 
is that you shall find enough disinterested people in the 
country to support the Ohio improvement with some others 
that I mentioned yesterday that might be just as well carried 
along together, right in the heart of the country. The 
improvement of the Ohio River is not alone to improve the 
Ohio River and help the States along its border, but it is 
also to help the Mississippi River and the States that border 
on the Mississippi River down to the Gulf and the whole 
country. 

I am only a coordinate branch of this Government and 
the least important of those branches, but such influence as 
I can bring to bear you can count on my bringing to bear 
in favor of the Ohio River, and it is not because I was born 
and brought up in Ohio and looked across the Ohio River 
until I left Ohio, but it is because I have looked into the 
question of the improvement, and if I came from the 
Columbia River I should still be in favor of the improve- 
ment of the Ohio. 



LXII 

REMARKS TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE LAKES- 
TO-THE-GULF DEEP WATERWAYS ASSO- 
CIATION, AT THE WHITE HOUSE 

(DECEMBER 9, 1909) 

Governor Deneen, of her Governors, and Gentlemen of the Deep 
Waterways A ssociation: 

I AM glad to renew our old and our delightful association. 
The presence of gubernatorial timber on that trip 
sweetens every recollection of the trip. It will be, I doubt 
not, an epoch in the history of this country in fixing, more 
than any other one event, the attention of the country upon 
the necessity for action in respect to our inland waterways, 
the most important of which every one admits, of course, is 
the Mississippi River. 

How these details are to be worked out is a question that 
must be solved in the near future. I am sure that this 
coming Congress will take steps; I say I am sure — I mean 
I have received assurances from those gentlemen connected 
with the committees that have to do with legislation of that 
sort— that this whole matter will receive earnest consideration, 
and that steps will be made of an important character toward 
the development of a system of improvement in the heart of 
the country. That this may not meet the views of the most 
aspiring of those who are interested will probably be the case. 
With deference to Senator Warner and other members of that 
body called Congress, it never does quite meet the aspirations 
of everybody, but that "something is doing." if I may use a 
colloquial expression; that the interest of those who here- 
tofore have turned a cold shoulder to the entire subject has 
been aroused, no one at all familiar with the atmosphere of 

501 



502 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Washington can deny. And I hope that we are all engaged 
in a work in which we stand shoulder to shoulder without 
respect to a particular locality, and that if you gentlemen 
who are interested in a particular improvement find that 
your view may not be entirely met and that your particular 
project may not be the first one taken up in a substantial way, 
it will not prevent your welcoming a step by the Congress of 
the United States which when taken means the embracing of 
every improvement that ought to commend itself to those 
who are familiar with Congress. 

And, now, Governor Deneen, I am glad to renew the 
association and acquaintance which, though it was not begun 
on the broad bosom of the Mississippi, certainly received an 
impetus so that we shall never forget the company that we 
met there under auspices which our hosts, the Business 
Men's Association of St. Louis, made so delightful. 



LXIII 

ADDRESS AT A MASS MEETING IN CELEBRATION 

OF THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF METHODIST 

EPISCOPAL MISSIONS IN AFRICA, AT 

CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK CITY 

(DECEMBER 13, 1909) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I AM very glad to be here to bear witness to my very great 
interest in that which this meeting celebrates — the 
altaek of the Methodist Church upon Africa. I like to 
think of Methodism among the denominations as an affirma- 
tive, aggressive, pushing, practical church militant, and it 
needed to be thai to tackle Africa. Since I have had the 
honor to occupy public office, it has fallen to me to address 
meetings of many different churches, and I always seize the 
opportunity -when invited to any other church than my own, 
and I hope I don't leave out my own — to be present, because 
I like to feel and imbibe in my nature the sense of tolerance 
and increase in the feeling of the Fatherhood of God and the 
brotherhood of man among all the denominations of the 
churches; and my own reception by churches, not my own, 
makes me feel certain of the growing and wide catholicity of 
the Christian Church. Doubtless it is because I was not 
aroused to the importance of the missionary spirit and the 
great things that were being done years ago, that it seems to 
me thai it is only within recent times that this missionary 
feeling has taken such a hold upon the people. 

I have observed that each man dates the spread of public 
opinion on a particular subject from the time that he began 
to think of it ; but the history of our country does offer a date 

503 



501 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and an epoch when it seems to me that people of the United 
Slates acquired a wider and a world feeling, and an interest 
and a responsibility for all the people of the world, as dis- 
tinguished from those who enjoy our opportunities of living 
under the Stars and Stripes. 

It is not perhaps appropriate to date a religious movement 
from a war, but it does seem to me as if our people acquired 
a world feeling from the time we undertook the responsibility 
of freeing Cuba and saying what should be done by our 
neighbors with reference to internal government when that 
internal government seemed to us to pass the bounds of what 
we thought to be civilized. We began our war expecting to 
finish it shortly, and we landed in the Philippines and we 
are still there. But our horizon has widened much beyond 
those gems of the Pacific Ocean by reason of the respon- 
sibilities which we have been obliged to assume with reference 
to the entire world. We are a great power in the world, and 
we may be, and hope we are, a great power for usefulness, 
a great power fo ■ the spread of Christian civilization, and 
we must be so if we would justify our success and vindicate 
our right to enjoy the opportunities that God has given us 
in this fair, broad land of building of wealth and comfort and 
luxury and education and making ourselves, what we like 
to think we are, the foremost people of the world. 

There are those who would read the last words of Washing- 
ton in his farewell message as an indication that we ought 
to keep within the seas and not look beyond; but he was 
addressing thirteen states that had much to do before they 
could make themselves a great nation and that might well 
avoid entangling alliances, or any foreign interference, or 
any foreign trouble, while they were making themselves a 
nation. 

But now we are a nation with tremendous power and 
tremendous wealth, and unless we use that for the benefit 
of our international neighbors (and they are all neighbors 
of ours, for the world is very small) — unless we use that 
power and that wealth, we are failing to discharge the duties 



AND STATE PAPERS 505 

that we ought to feel as members of the international com- 
munity. This world is very small. It is only 10,00(1 miles 
to the Philippine Islands, and I am carried Lack, as I look 
into the face of my brother. Homer Stuntz, to many a plat- 
form that he and I sat upon in the Philippine Islands and 
talked about the possibilities of what we might do in develop- 
ing those islands and bringing those people to a realization 
of what good government was. I thought your church ought 
to have established a bishopric out in the Philippines, and 
we had a candidate out there. I haven't lost hope that von 
may know a good thing when you see it. But it is true 
that when you live in the Philippines, 10,000 miles away 
from here, and meet people coming and going, see people 
on the streets of Washington that you met in Mindanao, 
or in Luzon, or in Panay, or in Samar, and shake hands with 
them as if it were only yesterday when you last saw them, 
the world does not seem very big around. And so I can 
understand, though I don't quite have the feeling, that 
Africa is not so dark, is not so far away from anything that 
vou would wish to be in when your interest is excited, when 
your knowledge is full of the 'needs of the 160,000.000 of 
people who are in that continent, and of the possibilities of 
developing them into a Christian people who shall learn 
after a time all the arts of peace, and learn to govern 
themselves. 

I confess, if I w r ere a missionary, I would prefer to try my 
hand in a country like China that has a history of two or three 
or four or five thousand years, than to go into Africa that 
hasn't any history at all except that which we trace to the 
apes. But you can not read the account of the missions thai 
your church is carrying on in that continent without knowing 
that there is the seed which is to lead those people on to be 
useful citizens and useful members of the community and of 
the world. Now, as I understand it, the Methodist Church 
has taken the continent in front and rear at Madeira, at Al- 
giers, in Areola, in Portuguese East Africa, and in Rhodesia, 
and that there are missions and a stream of them m 



506 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

which the practical, sensible methods of modern missionaries 
have been adopted, and accompanying instruction in the 
Christian religion and the leading on to Christian civiliza- 
tion, of lessons in agriculture, in the simple mechanical arts, 
in primary education, and in leading them on to feel that 
debt of gratitude which reaches a native's heart as nothing 
else can, the ministrations of the physician when the dear 
ones of those native savages seem about to be taken away. 

The mission is a nucleus and epitome of the civilization 
that is expected to widen out in that neighborhood. I have 
heard missions criticized. I have heard men say that they 
would not contribute to foreign missions at all; that we had 
wicked people enough at home and we might just as well 
leave the foreign natives and savages to pursue their own 
happy lives in the forests and look after our own who need 
a great deal of ministration. I have come to regard that as 
narrow-minded as a man who does not like music, who does 
not understand the things that God has provided for the 
elevation of the human race. The missionaries in China 
and the missionaries in Africa are the forerunners of our 
civilization, and without them we should have no hope of 
conquering the love and the admiration and the respect of 
the millions of people whom we hope to bring under the 
influence of Christian civilization. 

Those who go for mercantile purposes into those distant 
lands, I am sorry to say, are quicker to catch the savage 
tendencies than the savages are to catch from them the basis 
of our Christian civilization, and if they had to depend for 
their belief in the good that is to come to them from embrac- 
ing Christianity and accepting a civilization that we offer 
them, to that which they learn from the adventurers who go 
far into the interior to buy things from them at a price much 
too low and much below what ought to be paid, we should 
never succeed at all. I speak that with all the sense of 
moderation that I know I ought to have in dealing with 
countries so far from here and in saying things that can not 
be contradicted. If there is anything that promotes lying 



AND STATE PAPERS 507 

and the abuse of imagination, it is the impunity thai a man 
enjoys in telling a story about something thai happened 
25,000 miles away, in a country that you can not reach and 
from which you don't hear more than once a year. 

Now, as to these statements that missionaries have an easy 
time, which have been made by a good many travelers, I 
remember that a leading correspondent of one of the news- 
papers wrote a book in which he sought to illustrate and 
prove it. I am glad to say he has taken it back now, but he 
described the great houses that the missionaries lived in, the 
number of servants that they had, and the comfortable life 
generally that they led, which he said was much more com- 
fortable than that which they would have had at home; but 
he did not go into the lives that they really lead; he did not 
see the work that they had to perform; he did not encounter, 
he did not know that terrible drain upon the vitality of being 
so many years away from home and from the people you love, 
from the communities you love, and the surroundings you 
love, and if he had been talking about African missions he 
would not have been able to describe their large houses or 
their comfortable quarters. A man who goes into Africa as 
a missionary goes into a place where he must be content to 
put up with all sorts of sacrifices and a very possible death 
from the malignant fevers that he is constantly exposed to, 
unless he goes clear into the interior onto the tablelands. 
I admire the missionaries who go to India and China and the 
Philippines, because I know they are doing good work, and 
I know that they have many sacrifices to make; but the 
men whom I wish most to commend are those who in the 
face of all the obstacles that certainly tend to discourage the 
bravest, enter the dark continent of Africa in an attempt to 
win those people to Christianity and civilization. 

Of course, there has been great improvement in Africa; 
that is, they have surveyed it enough and investigated it 
enough to divide it up between the European nations. Well 
I hope that is an improvement. I have no doubt it is. I 
have no doubt that their governments there have defects as 



508 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

other governments have, and have the natural defects that 
governments so far removed from civilization must have. 
But it is a sign of progress that the boundaries have been 
fixed throughout Africa, and that European nations are 
becoming responsible for the governments in that country. 
The Unked States has not any territorial interest there. 
We did make an experiment, or encouraged an experiment 
some seventy odd years ago in Liberia, and we do have that 
interest that we ought to have in trying to preserve the 
integrity of that little Negro republic that was begun so many 
years ago. But you know, and the nations of the world 
know, that we are not in Africa to spread our territory. We 
have enough. Some people think we have a good deal 
more than enough, but certainly there is no one quite so 
imperialistic as to desire to share a part of the dark continent; 
but because we are not going in there to assume the powers 
of government does not furnish the slightest reason why we 
should not in every way possible encourage such movements 
as this under the auspices of other governments, to aid those 
governments, and to aid the people under those governments 
in the progress toward Christian civilization. We have the 
money here and we have the men and women who are willing 
to make the sacrifice; and those of us who sit back and come 
every two or three years to hear the stories of what has been 
done there by representatives of this country, may well 
afford to be generous in helping out that movement. 

It is curious to see how the Almighty works His ways. 
Our interest in Africa for many years was the interest to 
suppress the slave trade. We were all responsible — New 
England got out of it a little earlier than the rest — for a 
time in the encouragement of that trade. And now we have 
living with us ten millions of people who are descended from 
the slaves that were taken by force — the Negroes that were 
taken by force from that dark continent, taken with all the 
cruelties incident to the middle passage; and yet no one would 
say that the descendants of those people thus brought here 
are not to be congratulated on the fact that their ancestors 



AND STATE PAPERS 509 

were brought here, so that they have been able to enjoy 
the proximity to civilization and are a hundred years In 
advance of their relatives in Africa; and yet they came here 
by the greed and the sin of those for whom we, by reason of 
ancestry, must be responsible. I think that is a very curious 
working out of the ways of God that no one could have 
anticipated. It is natural that the Negroes of America, who 
have had the advantage of an association in a Christian 
country, with modern civilization, so that they are civilized 
and educated, should yet retain an intense interest in the 
development of the continent from which their ancestors 
came; and I am glad to note the fact that there is an interest 
among the race, both as to Liberia and the maintenance of 
that republic, and this missionary movement through the 
dark continent, to bring all the black races into Christian 
civilization. 

Now, my friends, I ought not to have spoken at all to- 
night on this subject, because I haven't any information 
about Africa which you do not have; but I have acquired the 
habit of speaking at foreign mission meetings, and the 
managers of the meetings think that there is something 
missing in the support of the Government unless I appear to 
testify in my insufficient and inadequate way to the interest 
that the country all has in the success of this movement. 
Now, my dear friend. Bishop Hartzell I hope has realized 
what he came here to bring about, and I hope he will take 
back in his pocket that $300,000 that is necessary to aid him 
in the great work he is there carrying on. I wish he had 
$3,000,000 instead of $300,000, but it is a good deal easier 
to wish it than to get it; and if we have secured $300,000, we 
ought to be as smiling and as happy as possible in the 
thought of the good which that will do. 



LXIV 

REMARKS AT THE NEW BOWERY MISSION, 
NEW YORK CITY 

(December 13, 1909) 

My Friends: 

I AM just about as much surprised at being here as you 
are at seeing me. I had a note from your benefactor, 
Dr. Klopsch, asking me to come down to a mission which 
he had established in the Bowery, after the meeting at Car- 
negie Hall. Now, I have known Dr. Klopsch — well, not 
very long — but I have known him in a way that perhaps you 
know him. I know him by what he has done. 

It has been my fortune in life to play a good deal of the 
part of a figurehead. Some men do the work and others are 
figureheads; and nature developed me in such a way that 
I play a pretty good part as a figurehead. So they put me at 
the head of the Red Cross, and as the head of the Red Cross 
I came to know the enormous energy and the tremendous 
power for good which Dr. Klopsch could exercise through 
the Christian Herald in raising hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to relieve human suffering wherever it might be in 
the world. And so when he wrote and asked me to come 
here, I was not exactly advised as to where I was coming, 
except that it was on the Bowery, and I have always had a 
good deal of curiosity (for I have not lived in New York) to 
know the Bowery, and I felt certain that where Dr. Klopsch 
and the Bowery met there would probably be the best part 
of the Bowery, and so I came here. 

Now, your superintendent has been good enough to say 
some complimentary things about my coming from Carnegie 
Hall down to the Bowery to meet you. I am not conscious of 

510 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 511 

deserving any credit for that at all. As I look into your 
faces I see that you are earnest American citizens. To use 
a colloquial expression, some of you "down on your luck" 
perhaps, but nevertheless responding in every fiber of your 
body to the same sentiments of loyalty and patriotism and 
love of country and decency and aspirations for better things 
that I hope every other man in this country has. I am glad 
to be here, if, by being here and saying so, I can convince 
you that the so-called chasm between you and people who 
seem for the time to be more fortunate is not a chasm, and 
that there is extending over whatever is between you and 
them a deep feeling of sympathy and a deep earnest desire 
that you shall have that equality of opportunity, that means 
of getting onto your feet, of earning your livelihood, of sup- 
porting your families, f hat we hope every man under the 
Stars and Stripes may fully enjoy. I am glad to come here 
and to testify by my presence as to my sympathy with the 
great work of Dr. Klopsch in this mission by which he 
shall from time to time and constantly, help you and other 
men over hard places, help you over the times when 
things seem desperate, when it seems as if the Lord and 
everybody else had turned against you — help you over 
those times to believe that there are people in the world 
who sympathize with you and wish for better things, and 
enable you to achieve those better things that the equality 
of opportunity may, I hope, in this country enable you to 
achieve. 

I know it is difficult for you to believe that I, who for the 
time being am receiving a large salary from the United States 
and living in comfort, could understand or take into my 
heart, the feeling that you may have of desperation and of a 
sense of injustice that you have not had the chance that other 
men have had; and yet I assure you that, in spite of that 
seeming difference, your fellow-citizens and mine are not 
the greedy, oppressive persons that sometimes people would 
make you believe, but that, more to-day than ever in the 
history of the world, their hearts are open and their desires 



512 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to help the needy and lift the suffering out of their suffering 
are greater to-day than ever before and are growing every 
month. Dr. Klopsch is one of those through whom I hope 
that thought is being conveyed to you, so that you may not 
burn with a sense of injustice, but that you may hope on and 
struggle on with the belief that the future is brighter for you. 



LXV 

SPECIAL MESSAGE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE 

AND ANTI-TRUST LAWS AND FEDERAL 

INCORPORATION 

(JANUARY 7, 1910) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I WITHHELD from my annual message a discussion of 
needed legislation under the authority which Congress 
has to regulate commerce between the States and with 
foreign countries, and said that I would bring this subject- 
matter to your attention later in the session. Accordingly, I 
beg to submit to you certain recommendations as to the 
amendments to the interstate commerce law and certain 
considerations arising out of the operations of the anti-trust 
law suggesting the wisdom of Federal incorporation of 
industrial companies. 

INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW 

In the annual report of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission for the year 1908, attention is called to the fact that 
between July 1, 1908, and the close of that year sixteen 
suits had been begun to set aside orders of the' commission 
(besides one commenced before that date), and that few 
orders of much consequence had been permitted to go with- 
out protest; that the questions presented by these various 
suits were fundamental, as the constitutionality of the act 
itself was in issue, and the right of Congress to delegate to 
any tribunal authority to establish an interstate rate was 
denied; but that perhaps the most serious practical question 
raised concerned the extent of the right of the courts to 
review the orders of the commission; and it was pointed out 

513 



514 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that if the contention of the carriers in this latter respect 
alone was sustained, but little progress had been made in 
the Hepburn Act toward the effective regulation of interstate 
transportation charges. In twelve of the cases referred to, 
it was stated, preliminary injunctions were prayed for, being 
granted in six and refused in six. 

"It has from the first been well understood," says the 
commission, "that the success of the present act as a regula- 
ting measure depended largely upon the facility with which 
temporary injunctions could be obtained. If a railroad 
company, by mere allegation in its bill of complaint, sup- 
ported by ex 'parte affidavits, can overturn the result of days 
of patient investigation, no very satisfactory result can be 
expected. The railroad loses nothing by these proceedings, 
since if they fail it can only be required to establish the rate 
and to pay to shippers the difference between the higher 
rate collected and the rate which is finally held to be reason- 
able. In point of fact it usually profits, because it can sel- 
dom be required to return more than a fraction of the excess 
charges collected." 

In its report for the year 1909 the commission shows that 
of the seventeen cases referred to in its 1908 report, only one 
had been decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, 
although five other cases had been argued and submitted to 
that tribunal in October, 1909. 

Of course, every carrier affected by an order of the com- 
mission has a constitutional right to appeal to a Federal court 
to protect it from the enforcement of an order which it may 
show to be prima facie confiscatory or unjustly discriminatory 
in its effect; and as this application may be made to a court 
in any district of the United States, not only does delay 
result in the enforcement of the order, but great uncertainty 
is caused by contrariety of decision. The questions pre- 
sented by these applications are too often technical in their 
character and require a knowledge of the business and the 
mastery of a great volume of conflicting evidence which is 
tedious to examine and troublesome to comprehend. It 



AND STATE PAPERS 515 

would not be proper to attempt to deprive any corporation 
of the right to the review by a court of any order or decree 
which, if undisturbed, would rob it of a reasonable return 
upon its investment or would subject it to burdens which 
would unjustly discriminate against it and in favor of 
other carriers similarly situated. What is, however, of 
supreme importance is that the decision of such questions 
shall be as speedy as the nature of the circumstances will 
admit, and that a uniformity of decision be secured so as 
to bring about an effective, systematic, and scientific enforce- 
ment of the commerce law, rather than conflicting decisions 
and uncertainty of final result. 

For this purpose I recommend the establishment of a court 
of the United States composed of five judges designated for 
such purpose from among the circuit judges of the United 
States to be known as the "United States Court of Com- 
merce," which court shall be clothed with exclusive original 
jurisdiction over the following classes of cases: 

(1) All cases for the enforcement, otherwise than by 
adjudication and collection of a forfeiture or penalty, or 
by infliction of criminal punishment, of any order of the 
Interstate Commerce Commission other than for the pay- 
ment of money. 

(2) All cases brought to enjoin, set aside, annul, or sus- 
pend any order of requirement of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. 

(3) All such cases as under section 3 of the act of Febru- 
ary 19, 1903, known as the "Elkins Act," are authorized to 
be maintained in a circuit court of the United States. 

(4) All such mandamus proceedings as under the pro- 
visions of section 20 or section 23 of the Interstate Commerce 
Law are authorized to be maintained in a circuit court of 
the United States. 

Reasons precisely analogous to those which induced the 
Congress to create the Court of Custom Appeals by the 
provisions in the tariff act of August 5, 1909, may be urged 
in support of the creation of the Commerce Court. 



510 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 



In order to provide a sufficient number of judges to enable 
this court to be constituted, it will be necessary to authorize 
the appointment of five additional circuit judges who for 
the purposes of appointment, might be distributed to those 
circuits where there is at the present time the largest volume 
of business, such as the second, third, fourth, seventh, and 
eiehth circuits. The act should empower the Chief Justice 
afanv time when the business of the Court of Commerce 
does not require the services of all the judges, to reassign the 
judges designated to that court to the circuits to which they 
respectively belong; and it should also provide for payment 
to such judges while sitting by assignment in the Court of 
Commerce of such additional amount as is necessary to bring 
their annual compensation up to $10,000. 

The regular sessions of such a court should be held at 
the capital, but it should be empowered to hold sessions 
in different parts of the United States if found desirable; and 
its orders and judgments should be made final, subject only 
to review by the Supreme Court of the United States, with 
the provision that the operation of the decree appealed from 
shall not be stayed unless the Supreme Court shall so order. 
The Commerce Court should be empowered in its discretion 
to restrain or suspend the operation of an order of the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission under review pending the 
final hearing and determination of the proceeding, but no 
such restraining order should be made except upon notice 
and after hearing, unless in cases where irreparable damage 
would otherwise ensue to the petitioner. A judge of that 
court might be empowered to allow a stay of the commis- 
sion's order for a period of not more than sixty days, but 
pending application to the court for its order or injunction, 
then only where his order shall contain a specific finding 
based upon evidence submitted to the judge making the 
order and identified by reference thereto, that such irrep- 
arable damage would result to the petitioner, specifying 
the nature of the damage. 

Under the existing law, the Interstate Commerce Com- 



AND STATE PAPERS 517 

mission itself initiates and defends litigation in the eourts 
tor the enforcement, or in the defense, of its orders and 
decrees, and for this purpose it employs attorneys who 
while subject to the control of the Attorney-General, act 
upon the initiative and under the instructions of the commis- 
sion. This blending of administrative, legislative, and 
judicial functions tends, in my opinion, to impair the effi- 
ciency of the commission by clothing it with partisan charac- 
teristics and robbing it of the impartial judicial attitude il 
should occupy in passing upon questions submitted to it. 
In my opinion all litigation affecting the Government should 
be under the direct control of the Department of Justice; 
and I therefore recommend that all proceedings affecting 
orders and decrees of the Interstate Commerce Commission 
be brought by or against the United States eo nomine, and 
be placed in charge of an assistant attorney-general acting 
under the direction of the Attorney-General 

The subject of agreements between carriers with respect 
to rates has been often discussed in Congress. Pooling 
arrangements and agreements were condemned by the gen- 
eral sentiment of the people, and, under the Sherman Anti- 
trusl Law. any agreement between carriers operating in 
restraint of interstate or international trade or commerce 
would be unlawful. The Republican platform of 1908 
expressed the belief that the Interstate Commerce Law should 
be further amended so as to give the railroads the right to 
make and publish traffic agreements subject to the approval 
of I lie commission, but maintaining always the principle 
of competition between naturally competing lines and avoid- 
ing the common control of such lines by any means whatso- 
ever. In view of the complete control over rate-making and 
other practices of interstate carriers established by the acts 
of Congress and as recommended in this communication, 
I see no reason why agreements between carriers subject 
to the act. specifying the classifications of freight and the 
rates, fares, and charges for transportation of passengers 
and freight which thev may agree to establish, should not 



518 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

be permitted, provided copies of such agreements lie 
promptly filed with the commission, but subject to all the 
provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, and subject to 
the right of any parties to such agreement to cancel it as to 
all or any of the agreed rates, fares, charges, or classifica- 
tions by thirty days' notice in writing to the other parties 
and to the commission. 

Much complaint is made by shippers over the state of 
the law under which they are held bound to know the legal 
rate applicable to any proposed shipment, without, as a 
matter of fact, having any certain means of actually ascertain- 
ing such rate. It has been suggested that to meet this griev- 
ance carriers should be required, upon application by the 
shipper, to quote the legal rate in writing, and that the 
shipper should be protected in acting upon the rate thus 
quoted; but the objection to this suggestion is that it would 
afford a much too easy method of giving to favored shippers 
unreasonable preferences and rebates. I think that the 
law should provide that a carrier, upon written request by 
an intending shipper, should quote in writing the rate or 
charge applicable to the proposed shipment under any 
schedules or tariffs to which such carrier is a party, and 
that if the party making such request shall suffer damage 
in consequence of either refusal or omission to quote the 
proper rate or, in consequence of a misstatement of the rate, 
the carrier shall be liable to a penalty in some reasonable 
amount, say two hundred and fifty dollars, to accrue to the 
United States and to be recovered in a civil action brought 
by the appropriate district attorney. Such a penalty would 
compel the agent of the carrier to exercise due diligence in 
quoting the applicable legal rate, and would thus afford the 
shipper a real measure of protection, while not opening the 
way to collusion and the giving of rebates or other unfair 
discrimination. 

Under the existing law the commission can only act with 
respect to an alleged excessive rate or unduly discriminatory 
practice by a carrier on a complaint made by some individual 



AND ST ATI-; PAPERS 519 

affected thereby. I see no reason why the commission 
should not be authorized to act on its own initiative as well 
as upon the complaint of an individual in investigating the 
fairness of any existing rate or practice; and I recommend 
the amendment of the law to so provide; and also thai the 
commission shall be fully empowered, beyond any question, 
to pass upon the classifications of commodities for the pur- 
poses of fixing rates, in like manner as it may now do with 
respect to the maximum rate applicable to any transporta- 
tion. 

Under the existing law the commission may not investigate 
an increase in rates until after it shall have become effective; 
and although one or more carriers may file with the coin- 
mission a proposed increase in rates or change in classi- 
fications, or other alterations of the existing rates or classi- 
fications, to become effective at the expiration of thirty days 
from such filing, no proceeding can be taken to investigate 
the reasonableness of such proposed change until after it 
becomes operative. On the other hand, if the commission 
shall make an order finding that an existing rate is excessive 
and directing it to be reduced, the carrier affected may by 
proceedings in the courts stay the operation of such order 
of reduction for months and even years. It has, therefore, 
been suggested that the commission should be empowered, 
whenever a proposed increase in rates is filed, at once to 
enter upon an investigation of the reasonableness of the 
increase and to make an order postponing the effective date 
of such increase until after such investigation shall be com- 
pleted. To this, much objection has been made on the 
part of carriers. They contend that this would be, in effect, 
to take from the owners of the railroads" the management 
of their properties and to clothe the Interstate Commerce 
Commission with the original rate-making power — a policy 
which was much discussed at the time of the passage of the 
Hepburn Act in 11)0.3-0, and which was then and has always 
been distinctly rejected; and in reply to the suggestion thai 
they are able' by resorting to the courts to stay the taking 



520 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

effect of the order of the commission until its reasonableness 
shall have been investigated by the courts, whereas the 
people are deprived of any such remedy with respect to action 
by the carriers, they point to the provision of the Interstate 
Commerce Act providing for restitution to the shippers by 
carriers of excessive rates charged in cases where the orders 
of the commission reducing such rates are affirmed. It 
may be doubted how effective this remedy really is. Expe- 
rience has shown that many, perhaps most, shippers do not 
resort to proceedings to recover the excessive rates which 
they may have been required to pay, for the simple reason 
that they have added the rates paid to the cost of the goods 
and thus enhanced the price thereof to their customers, 
and that the public has in effect paid the bill. On the other 
hand, the enormous volume of transportation charges, 
the great number of separate tariffs filed annually with the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, amounting to almost 
200,000, and the impossibility of any commission supervis- 
ing the making of tariffs in advance of their becoming 
effective on every transportation line within the United 
States to the extent that would be necessary if their active 
concurrence were required in the making of every tariff, 
has satisfied me that this power, if granted, should be con- 
ferred in a very limited and restricted form. I therefore 
recommend that the Interstate Commerce Commission be 
empowered, whenever any proposed increase of rates is filed, 
at once, either on complaint or of its own motion, to enter 
upon an investigation into the reasonableness of such change, 
and that it be further empowered, in its discretion, to post- 
pone the effective date of such proposed increase for a period 
not exceeding sixty days beyond the date when such rate 
would take effect. If within this time it shall determine 
that such increase is unreasonable, it may then, by its order, 
either forbid the increase at all or fix the maximum beyond 
which it shall not be made. If, on the other hand, at the 
expiration of this time, the commission shall not have com- 
pleted its investigation, then the rate shall take effect 






AND STATE PAPERS 521 

precisely as it would under the existing law, and the coin- 
mission may continue its investigation with such results 
as might be realized under the law as it now stands. 

The claim is very earnestly advanced by some large 
associations of shippers that shippers of freight should be 
empowered to direct the route over which their shipments 
should pass to destination, and in this connection it has 
been urged that the provisions of section 15 of the Interstate 
Commerce Act, which now empowers the commission, after 
hearing on complaint, to establish through routes and maxi- 
mum joint rates to be charged, etc., when no reasonable 
or satisfactory through route shall have been already estab- 
lished, be amended so as to empower the commission to take 
such action, even when one existing reasonable and satis- 
factory route already exists, if it be possible to establish 
additional routes. This seems to me to be a reasonable 
provision. I know of no reason why a shipper should not 
have the right to elect between two or more established 
through routes to which the initial carrier may be a party, 
and to require his shipment to be transported to destination 
over such of such routes as he may designate for that 
purpose, subject, however, in the exercise of this right to 
such reasonable regulations as the Interstate Commerce 
Commission may prescribe. 

The Republican platform of 1908 declared in favor of 
amending the Interstate Commerce Law, but so as always 
to maintain the principle of competition between naturally 
competing lines, and avoiding the common control of such 
lines by any means whatsoever. One of the most potent 
means of exercising such control has been through the hold- 
ing of stock of one railroad company by another company 
owning a competing line. This condition has grown up 
under express legislative power conferred by the laws of 
many States, and to attempt now to suddenly reverse thai 
policy so far as it affects the ownership of stocks heretofore so 
acquired, would be to inflict a grievous injury, not only upon 
the corporations affected but upon a large body of the invest- 



5H PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

ment-holding public. I, however, recommend that the law 
shall be amended so as to provide that from and after the 
date of its passage no railroad company subject to the 
Interstate Commerce Act shall, directly or indirectly, acquire 
any interests of any kind in capital stock, or purchase or 
lease any railroad of any other corporation which competes 
with it respecting business to which the Interstate Commerce 
Act applies. But especially for the protection of the minority 
stockholders in securing to them the best market for their 
stock I recommend that such prohibition be coupled with 
a proviso that it shall not operate to prevent any corporation 
which, at the date of the passage of such act, shall own not 
less than one-half of the entire issued and outstanding capi- 
tal stock of any other railroad company, from acquiring all 
of the remainder of such stock; nor to prohibit any railroad 
company which at the date of the enactment of the law is 
operating a railroad of any other corporation under lease, 
executed for a term of not less than twenty-five years, from 
acquiring the reversionary ownership of the demised rail- 
road ; but that such provisions shall not operate to authorize 
or validate the acquisition, through stock ownership or 
otherwise, of a competing line or interest therein in violation 
of the anti-trust or any other law. 

The Republican platform of 1908 further declares in favor 
of such national legislation and supervision as will prevent 
the future overissue of stocks and bonds by interstate 
carriers, and in order to carry out its provisions I recommend 
the enactment of a law providing that no railroad corpora- 
tion subject to the Interstate Commerce Act shall hereafter 
for any purpose connected with or relating to any part of its 
business governed by said act, issue any capital stock without 
previous or simultaneous payment to it of not less than the 
par value of such stock, or any bonds or other obligations 
(except notes maturing not more than one year from the 
date of their issue), without the previous or simultaneous 
payment to such corporation of not less than the par value 
of such bonds, or other obligations, or, if issued at less 






AND STATE PAPERS 523 

than their par value, then not without such payment of the 
reasonable market value of such bonds or obligations as 
ascertained by the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
and that no property, services, or other thing than money 
shall be taken in payment to such a carrier corpora! ioii, 
of the par or other required price of such stock, bond, or 
other obligation, except at the fair value of such property, 
services, or other thing as ascertained by the commission; 
and that such act shall also contain provisions to prevent 
the abuse by the improvident or improper issue of notes 
maturing at a period not exceeding twelve months from dale, 
in such a manner as to commit the commission to the 
approval of a larger amount of stock or bonds in order to 
retire such notes than should legitimately have been required. 

Such act should also provide for the approval by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission of the amount of stock and 
bonds |o be issued by any railroad company subject to this act 
upon any reorganization, pursuant to judicial sale or other 
legal proceedings, in order to prevent the issue of stock 
and bonds to an amount in excess of the fair value of the 
properly which is the subject of such reorganization. 

I believe these suggested modifications in and amendments 
to the [nterstate Commerce Act would make it a complete 
and effective measure for securing reasonableness of rates 
and fairness of practices in the operation of interstate rail- 
road lines, wilhoul undue preference to any individual or 
class over any others; and would prevent the recurrence 
of many of the practices which have given rise in the past 
to so much public inconvenience and loss. 

By my direction the Attorney- General has drafted a bill 
to carry out these recommendations, which will be furnished 
upon request to the appropriate committee whenever it 
may be desired. 

In addition to the foregoing amendments of the Interstate 
Commerce 1 ,aw, the Interstate Commerce Commission should 
be given the power, after a hearing, to determine upon the 
uniform construction of those appliances — such as sill 



524 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

steps, ladders, roof handholds, running boards, and hand 
brakes on freight cars engaged in interstate commerce — 
used by the trainmen in operation of trains, the defects 
and lack of uniformity in which are apt to produce acci- 
dents and injuries to railway trainmen. The wonderful 
reforms effected in the number of switchmen and trainmen 
injured by coupling accidents, due to the enforced introduc- 
tion of safety couplers, is a demonstration of what can be 
done if railroads are compelled to adopt proper safety 
appliances. 

The question has arisen in the operation of the Interstate 
Commerce Employer's Liability Act as to whether suit can be 
brought against the employer company in any place other 
than that of its home office. The right to bring the suit 
under this act should be as easy of enforcement as the right 
of a private person not in the company's employ to sue on 
an ordinary claim, and process in such suit should be suffi- 
ciently served if upon the station agent of the company 
upon whom service is authorized to be made to bind the 
company in ordinary actions arising under State laws. Bills 
for both the foregoing purposes have been considered by 
the House of Representatives, and have been passed, and 
are now before the Interstate Commerce Committee of the 
Senate. I earnestly urge that they be enacted into law < 

ANTI-TRUST LAW AND FEDERAL INCORPORATION 

There has been a marked tendency in business in this 
country for forty years last past toward combination of 
capital and plant in manufacture, sale and transportation. 
The moving causes have been several : First, it has rendered 
possible great economy; second, by a union of former 
competitors it has reduced the probability of excessive 
competition; and, third, if the combination has been exten- 
sive enough, and certain methods in the treatment of com- 
petitors and customers have been adopted, the combiners 
have secured a monopoly and complete control of prices 
or rates. 



AND STATE PAPERS 






A combination successful in achieving complete control 
over a particular line of manufacture has frequently been 
called a trust. I presume that the derivation of the word 
is to be explained by the fact that a usual method of carry- 
ing out the plan of the combination has been to pul the capi- 
tal and plants of various individuals, firms, or corporations 
engaged in the same business under the control of trustees 
The increase of the capital of a business for the purpose 
of reducing the cost of production and effecting economy 
in the management has become as essential in modern prog- 
ress as the change from the hand tool to the machine 
When, therefore, we come to construe the object of Congress 
in adopting the so-called "Sherman Anti-trust Act" in 
1890,^ whereby in the first section every contract, combina- 
tion in the form of a trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in 
restraint of interstate or foreign trade or commerce, is con- 
demned as unlawful and made subject to indictment and 
restraint by injunction; and whereby in the second section 
every monopoly or attempt to monopolize, and every com- 
bination or conspiracy with other persons to monopolize 
any part of interstate trade or commerce, is denounced as 
illegal and made subject to similar punishment or restraint, 
we must infer that the evil aimed at was not the mere bigness 
of the enterprise, but it was the aggregation of capital and 
plants with the express or implied intent to restrain inter- 
state or foreign commerce, or to monopolize it in whole or 
in part. 

Monopoly destroys competition utterly, and the restraint of 
the full and free operation of competition has a tendency to 
restrain commerce and trade. A combination of persons, 
formerly engaged in trade as partnerships or corporations or 
otherwise, of course eliminates the competition that existed 
between them; but the incidental ending of that competition 
is not to be regarded as necessarily a direct restraint of trade. 
unless of such an all-embracing character that the intention 
and effect to restrain trade are apparent from the circum- 
stances or are expressly declared to be the object of the 



526 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES! 

combination. A mere incidental restraint of trade and 
competition is not within the inhibition of the act, but it 
is where the combination or conspiracy or contract is inevi- 
tably and directly a substantial restraint of competition, 
and so a restraint of trade, that the statute is violated. 

The second section of the act is a supplement to the first. 
A direct restraint of trade, such as is condemned in the first 
section, if successful and used to suppress competition, is 
one of the commonest methods of securing a trade monopoly, 
condemned in the second section. 

It is possible for the owners of a business of manufacturing 
and selling useful articles of merchandise so to conduct 
their business as not to violate the inhibitions of the Anti-trust 
Law and yet to secure to themselves the benefit of the 
economies of management and of production due to the con- 
centration under one control of large capital and many 
plants. If they use no other inducement than the constant 
low price of their product and its good quality to attract 
custom, and their business is a profitable one, they violate 
no law. If their actual competitors are small in comparison 
with the total capital invested, the prospect of new invest- 
ments of capital by others in such a profitable business is 
sufficiently near and potential to restrain them in the prices 
at which they sell their product. But if they attempt by 
a use of their preponderating capital and by a sale of their 
goods temporarily at unduly low prices, to drive out of busi- 
iness their competitors, or if they attempt, by exclusive 
contracts with their patrons and threats of non-dealing 
except upon such contracts, or by other methods of a similar 
character, to use the largeness of their resources and the 
extent of their output compared with the total output as a 
means of compelling custom and frightening off competi- 
tion, then they disclose a purpose to restrain trade and to 
establish a monopoly and violate the act. 

The object of the Anti-trust Law was to suppress the abuses 
of business of the kind described. It was not to interfere 
with a great volume of capital which, concentrated under 






AND STATE PAPERS 527 

one organization, reduced the cost of production and made 
its profits thereby, and took no advantage of its size by 
methods akin to duress to stifle competition with it. 

I wish to make this distinction as emphatic as possible, 
because I conceive that nothing could happen more destruc- 
tive to the prosperity of this country than the loss of thai 
great economy in production which has been and will be 
effected in all manufacturing lines by the employment of 
large capital under one management. I do not mean to 
say that there is not a limit beyond which the economy of 
management by the enlargement of plant ceases; and where 
this happens and combination continues beyond this point, 
the very fact shows intent to monopolize and not to econo- 
mize. 

The original purpose of many combinations of capital 
in this country was not confined to the legitimate and proper 
object of reducing the cost of production. On the contrary. 
the history of most trades will show at times a feverish 
desire to unite by purchase, combination, or otherwise all 
plants in the country engaged in the manufacture of a 
particular line of goods. The idea was rife that thereby 
a monopoly could be effected and a control of prices brought 
about which would inure to the profit of those engaged in 
the combination. The path of commerce is strewn with 
failures of such combinations. Their projectors found thai 
the union of all the plants did not prevent competition, 
especially where proper economy had not been pursued in 
purchase- and in the conduct of the business after the aggre- 
gation was complete. There were enough, however, of 
such successful combinations to arouse. the fears of good. 
patriotic men as to the result of a continuance of this move- 
ment toward the concentration in the hands of a few of the 
absolute control of the prices of all manufactured products. 

The anti-trust statute was passed in 1890 and prosecutions 
were soon begun under it. In the case of the United Stales 
v. Knight, known as the "Sugar Trust case," because o\ 
the narrow scope of the pleadings, the combination sought 



528 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

to be enjoined was held not to be included within the pro- 
hibition of the act, because the averments did not go beyond 
the mere acquisition of manufacturing plants for the refining 
of sugar, and did not include that of a direct and intended 
restraint upon trade and commerce in the sale and delivery 
of sugar across State boundaries and in foreign trade. The 
result of the Sugar Trust case was not happy, in that it 
gave other companies and combinations seeking a similar 
method of making profit by establishing an absolute control 
and monopoly in a particular line of manufacture a sense 
of immunity against prosecutions in the Federal jurisdic- 
tion; and where that jurisdiction is barred in respect to a 
business which is necessarily commensurate with the bound- 
aries of the country, no State prosecution is able to supply 
the needed machinery for adequate restraint or punishment. 

Following the Sugar Trust decision, however, there have 
come along in the slow but certain course of judicial dis- 
position, cases involving a construction of the anti-trust 
statute and its application until now they seem to embrace 
every phase of that law which can be practically presented 
to the American public and to the Government for action. 
They show that the Anti-trust Act has a wide scope and 
applies to many combinations in actual operation, rendering 
them unlawful and subject to indictment and restraint. 

The Supreme Court in several of its decisions has declined 
to read into the statute the word "unreasonable" before 
"restraint of trade," on the ground that the statute applies 
to all restraints and does not intend to leave to the court 
the discretion to determine what is reasonable restraint of 
trade. The expression "restraint of trade" comes from 
the common law, and at common law there were certain 
covenants incidental to the carrying out of a main or prin- 
cipal contract which were said to be covenants in partial 
restraint of trade, and were held to be enforcible because 
"reasonably" adapted to the performance of the main or 
principal contract. And under the general language used 
by the Supreme Court in several cases, it would seem that 



AND STATE PAPERS 529 

even such incidental covenants in restraint of interstate 
trade were within the inhibition of the statute and tnusl be 
condemned. In order to avoid such a result, I have thoughl 
and said that it might be well to amend the statute so as to 
exclude such covenants from its condemnation. A close 
examination of the later decisions of the court, however, 
shows quite clearly in cases presenting the exact question, 
that such incidental restraints of trade are held not to lie 
within the law and are excluded by the general statemenl 
that, to be within the statute, the effect of the restraint 
upon the trade must be direct and not merely incidental or 
indirect. The necessity, therefore, for an amendment of 
the statute so as to exclude these incidental and beneficial 
covenants in restraint of trade held at common law to be 
reasonable does not exist. 

In some of the opinions of the Federal circuit judges there 
have been intimations, having the effect, if sound, to weaken 
the force of the statute by including within it absurdly 
unimportant combinations and arrangements, and suggest- 
ing therefore the wisdom of changing its language by limit- 
ing its application to serious combinations with intent to 
restrain competition or control prices. A reading of the 
opinions of the Supreme Court, however, makes the change 
unnecessary, for they exclude from the operation of the acl 
contracts affecting interstate trade in but a small and inci- 
dental way, and apply the statute only to the real evil aimed 
at by Congress. 

The statute has been on the statute book now for two 
decades, and the Supreme Court in more than a dozen opin- 
ions has construed it in application to various phases of 
business combinations and in reference to various subjects- 
matter. It has applied it to the union under one control 
of two competing interstate railroads, to joint traffic arrange- 
ments between several interstate railroads, to private manu- 
facturers engaged in a plain attempt to control prices and 
suppress competition in a part of the country, including .1 
dozen states, and to many other combinations affecting 



530 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

interstate trade. The value of a statute which is rendered 
more and more certain in its meaning by a series of decisions 
of the Supreme Court furnishes a strong reason for leaving 
the act as it is, to accomplish its useful purpose, even though 
if it were being newly enacted useful suggestions as to change 
of phrase might be made. 

It is the duty and the purpose of the Executive to direct 
an investigation by the Department of Justice, through the 
grand jury or otherwise, into the history, organization, and 
purposes of all the industrial companies with respect to which 
there is any reasonable ground for suspicion that they have 
been organized for a purpose, and are conducting business on 
a plan which is in violation of the Anti-trust Law. The work 
is a heavy one, but it is not beyond the power of the Depart- 
ment of Justice, if sufficient funds are furnished, to carry 
on the investigations and to pay the counsel engaged in the 
work. But such an investigation and possible prosecution 
of corporations whose prosperity or destruction affects the 
comfort not only of stockholders but of millions of wage- 
earners, employees, and associated tradesmen, must neces- 
sarily tend to disturb the confidence of the business 
community, to dry up the now flowing sources of capital 
from its places of hoarding, and produce a halt in our 
present prosperity that will cause suffering and strained 
circumstances among the innocent many for the faults of 
the guilty few. The question which I wish in this message 
to bring clearly to the consideration and discussion of Con- 
gress is whether in order to avoid such a possible business 
danger something can not be done by which these busi- 
ness combinations may be offered a means, without great 
financial disturbance, of changing the character, organiza- 
tion, and extent of their business into one within the lines 
of the law under the Federal control and supervision, securing 
compliance with the anti-trust statute. 

Generally, in the industrial combinations called "trusts," 
the principal business is the sale of goods in many States 
and in foreign markets; in other words, the interstate and 



AND STATE PAPERS ;,:;i 

foreign business far exceeds the business done in any one 
State. This fact will justify the Federal Govemmenl in 
granting a Federal charter to such a combination to make 
and sell in interstate and foreign commerce the products of 
useful manufacture under such limitations as will secure 
a compliance with the anti-trust law. Il is possible so l<> 
frame a statute that while it offers protection to a Federal 
company against harmful, vexatious, and unnecessary 
invasion by the States, it shall subject it to reasonable taxa- 
tion and control by the States, with respect to its purely 
local business. 

Many people conducting great businesses have cherished 
a hope and a belief that in some way or other a line may be 
drawn between "good trusts" and "bad trusts/' and that 
it is possible by amendment to the Anti-trust Law to make 
a distinction under which good combinations may be per- 
mitted to organize, suppress competition, control prices, and 
do it all legally if only they do not abuse the power by taking 
too great profit out of the business. They point with force 
to certain notorious trusts as having grown into power 
through criminal methods by the use of illegal rebates and 
plain cheating,and by various acts utterly violative of business 
honesty or morality, and urge the establishment of some 
legal line of separation by which "criminal trusts" of this 
kind can be punished, and they, on the other hand, be 
permitted under the law to carry on their business. Now 
the public, and especially the business public, ought to rid 
themselves of the idea that such a distinction is practicable 
or can be introduced into the statute. Certainly under the 
present Anti-trust Law no such distinction exists. It has been 
proposed, however, that the word "reasonable" should be 
made a part of the statute, and then that it should be left 
to the court to say what is a reasonable restraint of trade. 
what is a reasonable suppression of competition, what is 
a reasonable monopoly. I venture to think that this is to 
put into the hands of the court a power impossible to exer- 
cise on any consistent principle which will insure the uni- 



532 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

formitv of decision essential to just judgment. It is to thrust 
upon the courts a burden that they have no precedents to 
enable them to carry, and to give them a power approaching 
the arbitrary, the abuse of which might involve our whole 
judicial system in disaster. 

In considering violations of the Anti-trust Law we ought, 
of course, not to forget that that law makes unlawful, methods 
of carrying on business which before its passage were 
regarded as evidence of business sagacity and success, and 
that they were denounced in this act not because of their 
intrinsic immorality, but because of the dangerous results 
toward which they tended, the concentration of industrial 
power in the hands of the few, leading to oppression and 
injustice. In dealing, therefore, with many of the men 
who have used the methods condemned by the statute for 
the purpose of maintaining a profitable business, we may 
well facilitate a change by them in the method of doing 
business, and enable them to bring it back into the zone 
of lawfulness without losing to the country the economy of 
management by which in our domestic trade the cost of 
production has been materially lessened and in competition 
with foreign manufacturers our foreign trade has been greatly 
increased. 

Through all our consideration of this grave question, 
however, we must insist that the suppression of competition, 
the controlling of prices, and the monopoly or attempt to 
monopolize in interstate commerce and business, are not 
only unlawful, but contrary to the public good, and that they 
must be restrained and punished until ended. 

I therefore recommend the enactment by Congress of a 
general law providing for the formation of corporations to 
engage in trade and commerce among the States and with 
foreign nations, protecting from them undue interference 
by the States and regulating their activities, so as to prevent 
the recurrence, under national auspices, of those abuses 
which have arisen under State control. Such a law should 
provide for the issue of stock of such corporations to an 



AND STATE PAPERS 533 

amount equal only to the cash paid in on the stock; and if 
the stock be issued for property, then al a fair valuation, 
ascertained under approval and supervision of Federal 
authority, after a full and complete disclosure of all the 
facts pertaining to the value of such propcrl y and the interesl 
therein of the persons to whom it is proposed to issue stock 
in payment of such property. It should subjeel the real 
and personal property only of such corporations to I lie same 
taxation as is imposed by the States within which they may 
be situated upon other similar properly located therein, anil 
it should require such corporations to file full and complete 
reports of their operations with the Departmenl of ( lommerce 
and Labor at regular intervals. Corporations organized 
under this act should be prohibited from acquiring and 
holding stock in other corporations (except for 
special reasons upon approval by the proper Federal 
authority), thus avoiding the creation, under National 
auspices, of the holding company with subordinate 
corporations in different States, which has been such an 
effective agency in the creation of the great trusts and 
monopolies. 

If the prohibition of the Anti-trust Act against combinations 
in restraint of trade is to be effectively enforced, it is essential 
that the National Government shall provide for the creation 
of national corporations to carry on a legitimate business 
throughout the United States. The conflicting laws of the 
different States of the Union with respect to foreign corpora- 
tions make it difficult, if not impossible, for one corporation 
to comply with their requirements so as to carry on business 
in a number of different States. 

To the suggestion that this proposal of Federal incorpora- 
tion for industrial combinations is intended to furnish them 
a refuge in which to continue industrial abuses under Federal 
protection, it should be said that the measure contemplated 
does not repeal the Sherman Anti-trust Law and is not to be 
framed so as to permit the doing of the wrongs which il i^ 
the purpose of that law to prevent, but only to foster a con- 



534 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

tinuance and advance of the highest industrial efficiency 
without permitting industrial abuses. 

Such a national incorporation law will be opposed, first, 
by those who believe that trusts should be completely broken 
up and their property destroyed. It will be opposed, second, 
by those who doubt the constitutionality of such Federal 
incorporation, and even if it is valid, object to it as too great 
Federal centralization. It will be opposed, third, by 
those who will insist that a mere voluntary incorporation 
like this will not attract to its acceptance the worst of the 
offenders against the anti-trust statute, and who will therefore 
propose instead of it a system of compulsory licenses for all 
Federal corporations engaged in interstate business. 

Let us consider these objections in their order. The 
Government is now trying to dissolve some of these com- 
binations, and it is not the intention of the Government to 
desist in the least degree in its effort to end those combinations 
which are to-day monopolizing the commerce of this country. 
Where it appears that the acquisition and concentration 
of property go to the extent of creating a monopoly or of 
substantially and directly restraining interstate commerce, 
it is not the intention of the Government to permit this 
monopoly to exist under Federal incorporation or to transfer 
to the protecting wing of the Federal Government a State 
corporation now violating the Sherman Act. But it is not 
and should not be, the policy of the Government to prevent 
reasonable concentration of capital which is necessary to 
the economic development of manufacture, trade, and com- 
merce. This country has shown a power of economical 
production that has astonished the world, and has enabled 
ns to compete with foreign manufactures in many markets. 
It should be the care of the Government to permit such con- 
centration of capital while keeping open the avenues of 
individual enterprise, and the opportunity for a man or 
corporation with reasonable capital to engage in business. 
If we would maintain our present business supremacy, we 
should give to industrial concerns an opportunity to reorgan- 



AND STATE PAPERS 535 

ize and to concentrate their legitimate capital in ;i Federal 
corporation, and to carry on their large business within the 
lines of the law. 

Second. There are those who doubt the constitutionality 
of such Federal incorporation. The regulation of interstate 
and foreign commerce is certainly conferred in the fullest 
measure upon Congress, and if for the purpose of seining 
in the most thorough manner that kind of regulation, Con- 
gress shall insist that it may provide and authorize certain 
agencies to carry on that commerce, it would seem to be 
within its power. This has been distinctly affirmed with 
respect to railroad companies doing an interstate business, 
and interstate bridges. The power of incorporation has 
been exercised by Congress and upheld by the Supreme 
Court in this regard. Why, then, with respect to any other 
form of interstate commerce like the sale of goods across 
State boundaries and into foreign commerce, may the same 
power not be asserted ? Indeed, it is the very fact thai they 
carry on interstate commerce that makes these great indus- 
trial concerns subject to Federal prosecution and control. 
How far as incidental to the carrying on of that commerce 
it may be within the power of the Federal Government to 
authorize the manufacture of goods, is perhaps more open 
to discussion, though a recent decision of the Supreme 
Court would seem to answer that question in the affirmative. 

Even those who are willing to concede that the Supreme 
Court may sustain such Federal incorporation are inclined 
to oppose it on the ground of its tendency to the enlargement 
of the Federal power at the expense of the power of the 
States. It is a sufficient answer to this argument to say 
that no other method can be suggested which offers Federal 
protection on the one hand and close Federal supervision 
on the oilier of these great organizations that are in fad 
federal because they are as wide as the country and are 
entirely unlimited in their business by State lines. Nor is 
the centralization of Federal power under this act likely to 
be excessive. Only the largest corporations would avail 



536 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

themselves of such a law, because the burden of complete 
Federal supervision and control that must certainly be 
imposed to accomplish the purpose of the incorporation 
would not be accepted by an ordinary business concern. 

The third objection, that the worst offenders will not 
accept Federal incorporation, is easily answered. The 
decrees of injunction recently adopted in prosecutions 
under the Anti-trust Law are so thorough and sweeping that 
the corporations affected by them have but three courses 
before them: 

First, they must resolve themselves into their component 
parts in the different States, with a consequent loss to them- 
selves of capital and effective organizations and to the country 
of concentrated energy and enterprise; or 

Second, in defiance of law and under some secret trust 
they must attempt to continue their business in violation of 
the Federal statute, and thus incur the penalties of contempt 
and bring on an inevitable criminal prosecution of the 
individuals named in the decree and their associates; or 

Third, they must reorganize and accept in good faith the 
Federal charter I suggest. 

A Federal compulsory license law, urged as a substitute 
for a Federal incorporation law, is unnecessary except to 
reach that kind of corporation which, by virtue of the con- 
siderations already advanced, will take advantage volun- 
tarily of an incorporation law, while the other State corpora- 
tions doing an interstate business do not need the supervision 
or the regulation of a Federal license and would only be 
unnecessarily burdened thereby. 

The Attorney-General, at my suggestion, has drafted 
a Federal incorporation bill, embodying the views I have 
attempted to set forth, and it will be at the disposition of 
the appropriate committees of Congress. 



LXVI 

SPECIAL MESSAGE ON THE CONSERVATION OF 
NATIONAL RESOURCES 

(JANUARY 14, 1910) 

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

IN MY annual message I reserved the subject of the 
conservation of our national resources for discussion 
in a special message as follows: 

"In several departments there is presented the necessity 
for legislation looking to the further conservation of our 
national resources, and the subject is one of such importance 
as to require a more detailed and extended discussion than 
can be entered upon in this communication. For that reason 
I shall take an early opportunity to send a special message 
to Congress on the subject of the improvement of our water- 
ways; upon the reclamation and irrigation of arid, semi-arid, 
and swamp lands; upon the preservation of our forests and 
the reforesting of suitable areas; upon the reclassification 
of the public domain with a view to separating from agri- 
cultural settlement mineral, coal, and phosphate lands and 
sites belonging to the Government bordering on streams 
suitable for the utilization of water power." 

In 1800 we had a public domain of 1,055, 1)11.^88 acres. 
We have now 731,354,081 acres, confined largely to the 
mountain ranges and the arid and semi-arid plains. \\ e 
have, in addition, 308,035,975 acres of land in Alaska. 

The public lands were, during the earliest administrations, 
treated as a national asset for the liquidation of the public 
debt and as a source of reward for our soldiers and sailors. 

537 



538 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Later on they were donated in large amounts in aid of the 
construction of wagon roads and railways, in order to open 
up regions in the West then almost inaccessible. All the 
principal land statutes were enacted more than a quarter 
of a century ago. The homestead act, the preemption and 
timber-culture act, the coal land and the mining acts were 
among these. The rapid disposition of the public lands 
under the early statutes, and the lax methods of distribution 
prevailing, due, I think, to the belief that these lands should 
rapidly pass into private ownership, gave rise to the impres- 
sion that the public domain was legitimate prey for the 
unscrupulous, and that it was not contrary to good morals 
to circumvent the land laws. This prodigal manner of dis- 
position resulted in the passing of large areas of valuable 
land and many of our national resources into the hands of 
persons who felt little or no responsibility for promoting 
the national welfare through their development. The truth 
is that title to millions of acres of public lands was fraudu- 
lently obtained, and that the right to recover a large part 
of such lands for the Government long since ceased by reason 
of statutes of limitation. 

There has developed in recent years a deep concern in 
the public mind respecting the preservation and proper use of 
our national resources. This has been particularly directed 
toward the conservation of the resources of the public 
domain. The problem is how to save and how to utilize, 
how to conserve and still develop; for no sane person can 
contend that it is for the common good that Nature's bless- 
ings are only for unborn generations. 

Among the most noteworthy reforms initiated by my 
distinguished predecessor were the vigorous prosecution 
of land frauds and the bringing to public attention of the 
necessity for preserving the remaining public domain from 
further spoliation, for the maintenance and extension of. 
our forest resources, and for the enactment of laws amending 
the obsolete statutes so as to retain governmental control over 
that part of the public domain in which there are valuable 



AND STATE PAPERS 589 

deposits of coal, of oil, and of phosphate, and, in additon 
thereto, to preserve control, under conditions favorable l<> 
the public, of the lands along the streams in which the fall 
of water can be made to generate power to be transmitted 
in the form of electricity many miles to the point of its use, 
known as "water-power" sites. 

The investigations into violations of the public land laws 
and the prosecution of land frauds have been vigorously 
continued under my administration, as has been the with- 
drawal of coal lands for classification and valuation and the 
temporary withholding of power sites. 

Since March 4, 1909, temporary withdrawals of power 
sites have been made on 102 streams, and these withdrawals 
therefore cover 229 per cent, more streams than were covered 
by the withdrawals made prior to that date. 

The present statutes, except so far as they dispose of the 
precious metals and the purely agricultural lands, are not 
adapted to carry out the modern view of the best disposition 
of public lands to private ownership, under conditions offer- 
ing on the one hand sufficient inducement to private capital 
to take them over for proper development, with restrictive 
conditions on the other which shall secure to the public 
that character of control which will prevent a monopoly 
or misuse of the lands or their products. The power of the 
Secretary of the Interior to withdraw from the operation of 
existing statutes tracts of land the disposition of which 
under such statutes would be detrimental to the public inter- 
est, is not clear or satisfactory. This power has been 
exercised in the interest of the public, with the hope thai 
Congress might affirm the action of the. Executive by laws 
adapted to the new conditions. Unfortunately. Congress 
has not thus far fully acted on the recommendations of the 
Executive, and the question as to what the Executive is to 
do is, under the circumstances, full of difficulty. It seems 
to me that it is the duty of Congress now, by a statute, to 
validate the withdrawals which have been made by the 
Secretary of the Interior and the President, and to authorize 



540 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

the Secretary of the Interior temporarily to withdraw lands 
pending submission to Congress of recommendations as to 
legislation to meet conditions or emergencies as they arise. 

One of the most pressing needs in the matter of public 
land reform is that lands should be classified according to 
their principal value or use. This ought to be done by that 
Department whose force is best adapted to that work. It 
should be done by the Interior Department through the 
Geological Survey. Much of the confusion, fraud, and 
contention which has existed in the past has arisen from the 
lack of an official and determinative classification of the 
public lands and their contents. 

It is now proposed to dispose of agricultural lands as such, 
and at the same time to reserve for other disposition the treas- 
ure of coal, oil, asphaltum, natural gas, and phosphate con- 
tained therein. This may be best accomplished by separating 
the right to mine from the title to the surface, giving the neces- 
sary use of so much of the latter as may be required for the 
extraction of the deposits. The surface might be disposed 
of as agricultural land under the general agricultural statutes, 
while the coal or other mineral could be disposed of by lease 
on a royalty basis, with provisions requiring a certain amount 
of development each year; and in order to prevent the use 
and cession of such lands with others of similar character 
so as to constitute a monopoly forbidden by law, the lease 
should contain suitable provision subjecting to forfeiture 
the interest of persons participating in such monopoly. 
Such law should apply to Alaska as well as to the United 
States. 

It is exceedingly difficult to frame a statute to retain gov- 
ernment control over a property to be developed by private 
capital in such manner as to secure the governmental purpose 
and at the same time not to frighten away the investment 
of the necessary capital. Hence, it may be necessary by 
laws that are really only experimental to determine from their 
practical operation what is the best method of securing the 
result aimed at. 



AND STATE PAPERS . , 1 1 

The extent of the value of phosphate is hardly realized, 
and with the need that there will be for il as the years roll 
on and the necessity for fertilizing the land shall become 
more acute, this will be a product which will probably 
attract the greed of monopolists. 

With respect to the public land which lies along the si reams 
offering opportunity to convert water power into transmis- 
sible electricity, another important phase of the public- 
land question is presented. There are valuable water-power 
sites through all the public-land States. The opinion is 
held that the transfer of sovereignty from the Federal Gov- 
ernment to the territorial governments as they become 
States, included the water power in the rivers except so far 
as that owned by riparian proprietors. I do not think it 
necessary to go into discussion of this somewhat mooted 
question of law. It seems to me sufficient to say that the 
man who owns and controls the land along the stream 
from which the power is to be converted and transmitted, 
owns land which is indispensable to the conversion and use 
of that power. I can not conceive how the power in streams 
flowing through public lands can be made available at all 
except by using the land itself as the site for the construction 
of the plant by which the power is generated and converted 
and securing a right of way thereover for transmission lines. 
Under these conditions, if the Government owns the adja- 
cent land — indeed, if the Government is the riparian 
owner — it may control the use of the water power by 
imposing proper conditions on the disposition of the hind 
necessary in the creation and utilization of the water power. 

The development in electrical appliances for the conver- 
sion of the water power into electricity to be transmitted 
long distances has progressed so far that it is no longer 
problematical, but it is a certain inference that in the 
future the power of the water falling in the streams to ;i 
large extent will take the place of natural fuels. In the 
disposition of the domain already granted, many water- 
power sites have come under absolute ownership, and may 



542 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

drift into one ownership, so that all the water power under 
private ownership shall be a monopoly. If, however, the 
water-power sites now owned by the Government — and 
there are enough of them — shall be disposed of to private 
persons for the investment of their capital in such a way as 
to prevent their union for purposes of monopoly with other 
water-power sites, and under conditions that shall limit the 
right of use to not exceeding fifty years, with proper means 
for determining a reasonable graduated rental, and with 
some equitable provision for fixing terms of renewal, it 
would seem entirely possible to prevent the absorption of 
these most useful lands by a power monopoly. As long as 
the Government retains control and can prevent their 
improper union with other plants, competition must be 
maintained and prices kept reasonable. 

In considering the conservation of the natural resources 
of the country, the feature that transcends all others, includ- 
ing woods, waters, minerals, is the soil of the country. It is 
incumbent upon the Government to foster by all available 
means the resources of the country that produces the food 
of the people. To this end the conservation of the soils 
of the country should be cared for with all means at the 
Government's disposal. Their productive powers should 
have the attention of our scientists that we may conserve the 
new soils, improve the old soils, drain wet soils, ditch swamp 
soils, levee river overflow soils, grow trees on thin soils, 
pasture hillside soils, rotate crops on all soils, discover 
methods for cropping dry-land soils, find grasses and legumes 
for all soils, feed grains and mill feeds on the farms where 
they originate, that the soils from which they come may be 
enriched. 

A work of the utmost importance to inform and instruct 
the public in this chief branch of the conservation of our 
resources is being carried on successfully in the Department 
of Agriculture; but it ought not to escape public attention 
that State action in addition to that of the Department of 
Agriculture (as for instance in the drainage of swamp lands) 



AND STATE PAPERS 543 

is essential to the best treatment of the soils in the manner 
above indicated. 

The act by which, in semi-arid parts of the public domain, 
the area of the homestead has been enlarged from 160 to 
320 acres has resulted most beneficially in the extension of 
"dry farming," and in the demonstration which has been 
made of the possibility, through a variation in the character 
and mode of culture, of raising substantial crops without 
the presence of such a supply of water as heretofore has been 
thought to be necessary for agriculture. 

But there are millions of acres of completely arid land in 
the public domain which, by the establishment of reservoirs 
for the storing of water and the irrigation of the lands, may 
be made much more fruitful and productive than the besl 
lands in a climate where the moisture comes from the clouds. 
Congress recognized the importance of this method of 
artificial distribution of water on the arid lands by the 
passageof the Reclamation Act. The proceeds of the public 
lands create the fund to build the works needed to store 
and furnish the necessary water, and it was left to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior to determine what projects should he 
selected among those suggested, and to direct the Reclama- 
tion Service, with the funds at hand and through the engineers 
in its employ, to construct the works. 

No one can visit the Far West and the country of arid 
and semi-arid lands without being convinced that this is one 
of the most important methods of the conservation of ( un- 
natural resources that the Government has entered upon. 
It would appear that over thirty projects have been under- 
taken, and that a few of these are likely to be unsuccessful 
because of lack of water, or for other reasons, but generally 
the work which has been done has been well done, and many 
important engineering problems have been met and solved. 

One of the difficulties which have arisen is that too many 
projects in view of the available funds have been set on foot. 
The funds available under the reclamation statute are 
inadequate to complete these projects within a reasonable 



544 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

time. And yet the projects have been begun; settlers have 
been invited to take up and, in many instances, have taken 
up, the public land within the projects, relying upon their 
prompt completion. The failure to complete the projects 
for their benefit is, in effect, a breach of faith and leaves 
them in a most distressed condition. I urge that the nation 
ought to afford the means to lift them out of the very desper- 
ate condition in which they now are. This condition does 
not indicate any excessive waste or any corruption on the 
part of the Reclamation Service. It only indicates an 
overzealous desire to extend the benefit of reclamation to 
as many acres and as many States as possible. I recommend, 
therefore, that authority be given to issue not exceeding 
$30,000,000 of bonds from time to time, as the Secretary 
of the Interior shall find it necessary, the proceeds to be 
applied to the completion of the projects already begun 
and their proper extension, and the bonds running ten 
years or more to be taken up by the proceeds of returns to 
the reclamation fund, which returns, as the years go on, 
will increase rapidly in amount. 

There is no doubt at all that if these bonds were to be 
allowed to run ten years, the proceeds from the public lands, 
together with the rentals for water furnished through the 
completed enterprises, would quickly create a sinking 
fund large enough to retire the bonds within the time speci- 
fied. I hope that, while the statute shall provide that these 
bonds are to be paid out of the reclamation fund, it will be 
drawn in such a way as to secure interest at the lowest rate, 
and that the credit of the United States will be pledged for 
their redemption. 

I urge consideration of the recommendations of the Sec- 
retary of the Interior in his annual report for amendments 
of the Reclamation Act, proposing other relief for settlers 
on these projects. 

Respecting the comparatively small timbered areas on 
the public domain not included in national forests because 
of their isolation or their special value for agriculture or 



AND STATE PAPERS 545 

mineral purposes, it is apparent from the evils resulting by 
virtue of the imperfections of existing laws for the disposi- 
tion of timber lands, that the acts of June 3, 1878, should be 
repealed and a law enacted for the disposition of the timber 
at public sale, the lands after the removal of the timber to 
be subject to appropriation under the agricultural or mineral 
land laws. 

What I have said is really an epitome of the recommenda- 
tions of the Secretary of the Interior in respeel to the future 
conservation of the public domain in his presenl annual 
report. He has given close attention to ilie problem of 
disposition of these lands under such conditions as to invite 
the private capital necessary to their development on the one 
hand, and the maintenance of the restrictions necessary to 
prevent monopoly and abuse from absolute ownership <>n 
the other. These recommendations are incorporated in 
bills he has prepared, and they are at the disposition of tin- 
Congress. I earnestly recommend that all the suggestions 
which he has made with respect to these lands shall be 
embodied in statutes, and, especially, that the withdrawals 
already made shall be validated so far as necessary, and that 
the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to withdraw 
lands for the purpose of submitting recommendations as to 
future disposition of them where new legislation is needed 
shall be made complete and unquestioned. 

The forest reserves of the United States, some 190,000,000 
acres in extent, are under the control of the Department 
of Agriculture, with authority adequate to preserve them and 
to extend their growth so far as that may be practicable. 
The importance of the maintenance of our forests can not be 
exaggerated. The possibility of a scientific treatment of 
forests so that they shall be made to yield a large return in 
timber without really reducing the supply has been demon- 
strated in other countries, and we should work toward the 
standard set by them as far as their methods are applicable 
to our conditions. 

Upward of 400,000,000 acres of forest land in this country 



548 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

are in private ownership, but only 3 per cent, of it is being 
treated scientifically and with a view to the maintenance of 
the forests. The part played by the forests in the equaliza- 
tion of the supply of water on watersheds is a matter of 
discussion and dispute, but the general benefit lo be derived 
by the public from the extension of forest lands on watersheds 
and the promotion of the growth of trees in places that are 
now denuded and that once had great flourishing forests, 
goes without saying. The control to be exercised over 
private owners in their treatment of the forests which they 
own is a matter for State and not national regulation, because 
there is nothing- in the Constitution that authorizes the Fed- 
eral Government to exercise any control over forests within 
a State, unless the forests are owned in a proprietary way 
by the Federal Government. 

It has been proposed, and a bill for the purpose passed 
the lower house in the last Congress, that the National 
Government appropriate a certain amount each year out 
of the receipts from the forestry business of the Governn»ent 
to institute reforestation at the sources of certain navigable 
streams, to be selected by the Geological Survey, with a 
view to determining the practicability of thus improving and 
protecting the streams for Federal purposes. I think a mod- 
erate expenditure for each year for this purpose, for a period 
of five or ten years, would be of the utmost benefit in the 
development of our forestry system. 

I come now to the improvement of the inland waterways. 
He would be blind, indeed, who did not realize that the 
people of the entire West, and especially those of the Missis- 
sippi Valley, have been aroused to the need there is for the 
improvement of our inland waterways. The Mississippi 
River, with the Missouri on the one hand and the Ohio 
on the other, would seem to offer a great natural means of 
interstate transportation and traffic. How far, if properly 
improved, they would relieve the railroads or supplement 
them in respect to the bulkier and cheaper commodities is a 
matter of conjecture. No enterprise ought to be undertaken 



AND STATE PAPERS I, 

the cost of which is not definitely ascertained and the benefil 
and advantages of which are not known and assured by 
competent engineers and other authority. When, however, 
a project of a definite character for the improvemenl of a 
waterway hi*8 been developed so that the plans have been 
drawn, the cost definitely estimated, and the traffic which 
will be accommodated is reasonably probable, I think it is 
the duty of Congress to undertake the project and make 
provision therefor in the proper appropriation bill. 

One of the projects which answer the description I have 
given is that of introducing dams into the Ohio River from 
Pittsburg to Cairo, so as to maintain at all seasons of the 
year, by slack water, a depth of nine feet. Upward of 
seven of these dams have already been constructed and six 
are under construction, while the total required is fifty-four. 
The remaining cost is known to be $63,000,000. 

It seems to me that in the development of our inland water- 
ways it would be wise to begin with this particular project 
and .carry it through as rapidly as may be. I assume from 
reliable information that it can be constructed economically 
in twelve years. 

What has been said of the Ohio River is true in a less 
complete way of the improvement of the upper Mississippi 
from St. Paul to St. Louis, to a constant depth of six feet, and 
of the Missouri, from Kansas City to St. Louis, to a constant 
depth of six feet and from St. Louis to Cairo to a depth of 
eight feet. These projects have been pronounced practical 
by competent boards of army engineers, their cost has been 
estimated, and there is business which will follow the improve- 
ment. 

I recommend, therefore, that the present Congress, in 
the river and harbor bill, make provision for continuing 
contracts to complete these improvements. 

As these improvements are being made, and the traffic 
encouraged by them shows itself of sufficient importance, 
the improvement of the Mississippi beyond Cairo down to the 
Gulf, which is now going on with the maintenance of a depth 



548 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of nine feet everywhere, may he changed to another and 
greater depth if the necessity for it shall appear to arise out 
of the traffic which can be delivered on the river at Cairo. 

I am informed that the investigation by the Waterways 
Commission in Europe shows that the existence of a water- 
way by no means assures traffic unless there is traffic adapted 
to water carriage at cheap rates at one end or the other of 
the stream. It also appears in Europe that the depth of 
the non-tidal streams is rarely more than six feet, and never 
more than ten. But it is certain that enormous quantities 
of merchandise are transported over the rivers and canals 
in Germany and France and England, and it is also certain 
that the existence of such methods of traffic materially affects 
the rates which the railroads charge, and it is the best regu- 
lator of those rates that we have, not even excepting the 
governmental regulation through the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. For this reason, I hope that this Congress 
will take such steps that it may be called the inaugurator 
of the new system of inland waterways. 

For reasons which it is not necessary here to state, Congress 
has seen fit to order an investigation into the Interior Depart- 
ment and the Forest Service of the Agricultural Department. 
The results of that investigation are not needed to determine 
the value of, and the necessity for, the new legislation which 
I have recommended in respect to the public lands and in 
respect to reclamation. I earnestly urge that the measures 
recommended be taken up and disposed of promptly, with- 
out awaiting the investigation which has been determined 
upon. 



LXVII 

ADDRESS BEFORE THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDER- 
ATION AT THE BELASCO THEATRE, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(JANUARY 17, 1910) 

Mr, President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

IN THE first place, I am glad to welcome the Civic Federa- 
tion to Washington. I think the sun shines a little 
brighter in Washington than it does anywhere else along 
on the same latitude, and it is a very pleasant place either 
to live in or to be in; and therefore, I congratulate the Civic- 
Federation on having had the good sense to come here. 

You are not the only citizens of the United States who 
look in this direction. I am glad that you came here at the 
same time that the Governors did, so that your deliberations 
and theirs in the same direction, and the right direction, 
as they doubtless will be, will have the weight of two great 
forces, not only upon the National Legislature, but upon the 
State legislatures, for from Washington everything radiates 
to the ends of the country. 

In the discussion of uniformity of legislation, when you 
take a man who has gotten out of the practice of the law, 
so that he does not remember with great exactitude those 
principles that are applied in actual cases, he can not help 
falling back on a discussion of the Constitution. The 
constitutional lawyer is a gentleman who has gotten out of 
the practice and who has gone into politics. 

Now, my friend, Senator Root, whom I am delighted to 
class with me in the same category, some years ago was greatly 
misunderstood with reference to his view of the Constitution 

549 



550 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

and the trend under the Constitution toward centralization 
of o-overnment. If I understood him, his view was that, 
unless the States did their duty in the exercise of the functions 
which it was necessary they should exercise in the interest 
of o-ood government, there would be a tendency toward the 
enlargement of the Government at Washington; and he 
uttered a warning to the States that if they would retain the 
power given to them under the Constitution in all its integrity, 
they must see to it that they exercised that power in the in- 
terest of the people and in the interest of the country generally. 
The misunderstanding led to ascribing to him views in 
favor of centralization that would certainly have been most 
radical, but I am sure he does not have them. We have 
a nation and we have a centralized government, and the 
reason why we have it is because John Marshall was put 
at the head of the Supreme Court early and exercised that 
power which a good judge always exercises with his col- 
leagues. He did not minimize the power of the Supreme 
Court to construe that Constitution authoritatively. And 
so construing it, he made this a nation with all the powers 
incident to a nation. And then when he left the Bench, 
after that long period of useful service, he was succeeded 
by Chief Justice Taney and his associates, and at that time 
the trend toward national power and authority of the party, 
from which Chief Justice Taney was selected, led him right 
along the same path that Marshall had marked out, until 
we came to the war. And then with the war amendments, 
the same tendency to make this government a Nation as dis- 
tinguished from a Federation, continued to the present day. 
Now, it is said that we have centralized too much. There 
are jurisdictions which might be asserted under the Con- 
stitution that Congress has not asserted, notably in the 
jurisdiction of the Federal courts. So. too, in bankruptcy; 
so, too, in elections. With respect to the jurisdiction of the 
Federal courts, there is a large measure which Congress does 
not assert which it might take away from that which the State 
courts now exercise. And so, with respect to bankruptcy, 



AND STATE PAPERS .,,1 

it might be made much more exclusive of Stale jurisdiction 
in that regard, and with respect to elections, they have gone 
back entirely to the States. 

There are other matters under the Constitution which I 
shall not stop to mention, which show that all the power 
conferred upon the National Government has no! vet been 
exercised; but the reason why it seems as if we were becoming 
a more centralized government is not because of a change in 
the construction of the Constitution, but a change in the 
importance of the power which was always given to tin- 
National Government under that Constitution, to wit : tin- 
interstate commerce clause. When the Constitution was 
framed, the state traffic as distinguished from the interstate 
traffic was as 25 to 75, and now, instead, the interstate 
traffic is to the state traffic as 75 to 25 — a complete reversal 
of the amount of interstate business done as compared with 
the state business. And that is the reason why the National 
government's power seems to have grown so largely because 
its power covers more volume than it ever did before. With 
respect to that, I am inclined to think that it will be found 
wise after a time to recognize these great organizations, 
concentrations of wealth, and plant and capital that do a 
country-wide business, going into every State, whose business 
is almost wholly interstate, to recognize them as instrumental- 
ities of interstate commerce and to incorporate them in order 
that we may get them more directly under the control of the 
National Government. 

I admit there is ground for dispute, and I have only 
recommended this as something that I look forward to in 
the future as a means of saving to the public what is valuable; 
as there is a great deal that is valuable in those trusts, and 
eliminating permanently that which is vicious and con- 
trary to public policy. But you are not Congress, and I 
did not come here to convince you on that subject. I only 
mention it in passing. 

There has been, during the last ten or fifteen years, an 
earnest desire on the part of some people to minimize State 



552 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

power altogether. They say — I heard the distinguished 
Governor of Massachusetts say, the United States can 
better regulate child labor than can the States — so what's 
the use of talking! Why not put that power into the United 
States Government ? And so, with reference to every power, 
the suggestion is that the Central Government has more capi- 
tal; being more centralized, its execution of the laws is more 
certain and less affected by local conditions, and therefore 
it is wise in the interest of effective government to put what 
we can in the Central Government. Therefore we invoke the 
old "general welfare clause." We have got the money in 
the Treasury, and we can spend the money there for anything 
we choose, because there is no court to prevent i]L, We 
cannot issue an injunction against the Secretary of the 
Treasury dishonoring an appropriation of Congress. And 
when it comes to the expenditure of money, the history 
of the United States is full of appropriations and expenditures 
that can not be explained on any ground except that of 
old '* General Welfare." And the way they propose to ex- 
pend it when there is a particular subject that needs attention 
is to organize a bureau, and let that bureau occupy an 
advisory relation and experimental relation to the States 
in the exercise of that jurisdiction which is undoubtedly 
theirs. They have got to a point where, just before I sent 
in my message, in the list of bureaus that was asked for was 
a bureau on earthquakes. I assume that the argument 
was that as earthquakes did not know any State bounds 
neither did the exercise of jurisdiction with respect to them 
know any State bounds. 

Now, the lesson that this teaches is that we have a Con- 
stitution by which the Government of the United States can 
not accomplish all reform, and that there is a burden and 
there is a heavy responsibility, eloquently described by Mr. 
Root, upon the States with reference to meeting the demands 
of those who call themselves progressive, and who are in 
favor of the reforms to uplift the people and to make the 
comfort of the individual greater. 



IIS 



AND STATE PAPERS 

In no department of government, in no reform, is 1 1.. 
uniformity of legislation going to be more importanl than in 
the conservation of our resources. The Federal Governmenl 
has no power to compel owners of forests to attend to those 
forests with a view to the welfare of the community, of the 
neighbors who live there, or of those who are affected by 
the denudation of the land of the trees. Thai must be done 
through the State government if it is done at all. And so 
with respect to many of the streams. Indeed, if one follows 
out legal reasoning, it will seem, I think, that there is more 
to be done by the States in the conservation of resources 
even than by the Federal Government, large an influence as 
that Federal Government may have by reason of its owner- 
ship of the public domain. 

Now there are many other subjects that ought to occupy the 
States with reference to uniform legislation. If I had been 
a member of the Constitutional Convention, I would have 
voted to have included marriage and divorce in the Federal 
jurisdiction, but it will never get there now. 

The theory upon which they put in bankruptcy was that 
where a man was declared a bankrupt it fixed his status, and 
that status ought not to vary in one State from the status 
in another. But when a man is married, he has established 
a status and certainly that status ought not to vary between 
the States, but as it is not possible to secure an amendment 
to the United States Constitution placing that subject within 
Federal cognizance, it certainly calls for uniform legislation 
on the part of the States. I state that because I think every- 
body will agree with me. Then I am not going on to say 
what kind of legislation there ought to be, because I am told 
that in that discussion as yet even the Civic Federation has 
not reached a result. 

Then there is another subject upon which there may 
well be uniformity of legislation after we, in the Federal 
Government, have adopted a proper system, and that is 
with respect to judicial procedure. If there is anything in 
our whole Government, state and national, that justifies 



554 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

an attack upon our present system of living, it is the delays 
in our judicial procedure, and the advantage that wealth 
gives in the struggle in the courts against those who have 
not the means to meet the expense that is now imposed 
on them. 

If we can do something in the National Government to 
introduce the simplicity of .the English procedure in equity 
and in law, perhaps uniting them, that will be a model 
for State legislatures in adopting a uniform system. 

I might go on with respect to other subjects; I have said 
a good deal more than I intended to, and I have only — 
so to speak — "shot on the wing"; but if you had to write a 
message a week perhaps you would only write when you 
have to. 



LXVI1I 

ADDRESS AT THE CONFERENCE OF GOVERN- 
ORS IN THE EAST ROOM OF 
THE WHITE HOUSE 

(JANUARY 18, 1910) 

My dear Fellow Executives and Fellow Sufferers: 

1AM delighted to greet you in the White House. I 
should have been glad to have had you here during all 
your sessions so that you might have made the White House 
your headquarters, but in discussing this matter with the 
committee it occurred to them, and it occurred to me, thai 
it would possibly be better for you to hold your sessions 
in a neutral place, so to speak, where you would feel i non- 
independent, and where doubtless things could be said 
and things could be done which perhaps might be a little 
embarrassing in doing when you were under the Executive 
shadow. 

When you were here before, Mr. Roosevelt, I think, 
extended to you the hospitality of the White House, and the 
meetings were held here, but those meetings were so fully 
his, in the sense of being called by him, that it seemed entirely 
appropriate; whereas now, I hope this is a movement among 
the Governors to have some sort of a permanent arrangement 
that shall bring them here without suggestion from any one 
but the Governors themselves. 

For my own comfort, it would have been better if 
the Civic Federation and the Governors had united in the 
initial meeting, for I made a speech yesterday and said all 
I could think of saying on the general subject that called 
you here. 

You are here for the purpose of considering those subjects 

555 



556 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

for laws in respect to which the legislation of the States ought 
to be uniform; and to take that course of making up for what 
some people point out as defects of the Federal Constitution, 
in that it does not give jurisdiction to the Federal Govern- 
ment with respect to certain purposes which can only be 
accomplished by joint action of the States. 

I regard this movement as of the utmost importance. The 
Federal Constitution has stood the test of more than one 
hundred years in supplying the powers that have been needed 
to make the Central Government as strong as it ought to be, 
and with this movement toward uniform legislation and 
agreement between the States I do not see why the Con- 
stitution may not serve our purpose always. I speak to 
you as gentlemen who can influence legislation in the States, 
and who are in a sense responsible for it. That brings up a 
thought which I am sure you have had in common with me. 
I have no doubt each of you receives letters indicating that 
the writer thinks that you, with your good right hand, pass 
laws, and that without any further ceremony; and that you 
are entirely responsible for all the legislation that is enacted 
by the State legislatures. The States differ somewhat, but 
generally the Executive has the veto power and has that sort 
of relation to the legislature that the Chief Executive of the 
United States has toward Congress. I have found — per- 
haps you have found — that when people want legislation 
they felt that the Executive did not exercise as much control 
over the legislation as he ought to, and that when they did not 
want legislation he exercised altogether too much power. 
I have thought that the English system presents in 
certain ± spects a better system than ours in view of 
inevitable responsibility of the Executive for legislation, 
because there the Executive is not only the executive 
but also has control over the legislative action of the 
Government, leads the legislature, and indeed goes out 
when as the party head he is not able to control the 
majority of the legislature. 

It seems to me, without ever hoping or suggesting that 



AND STATE PAPERS 55-3 

there can be any change in our system for its rigidity 
has advantages — that still that system would presenl a good 
many opportunities that you and I would like to seize upon 
and argue out questions to the legislature, and nol «,nK to 
argue out ^ questions but to save them time by giving 
them considerable information on subjects in regard to 
which they are not advised. It shortens, lam sure, the 
course of legislation — but we haven't that system, we 
haven't it in any State, and we are not going to have it, 
so there is no need of mourning over the fact that we can 
not have it. 

I am only speaking to you as executives who have felt the 
injustice of that sort of criticism that comes from the lack 
of that feature of the English system I have pointed out. 
You are the titular head of the party perhaps of your Stale, 
and you are made responsible for everything that is done 
by the party, although you may not be able by any declared 
legal way to control it, and therefore you have to use those 
influences, personal and otherwise, that are legitimate, to 
bring about the legislation for which the party of which you 
are to be the head has to be responsible. It is because you 
do have such great influence in molding legislation, that your 
meeting to secure uniformity of laws is so important and 
significant. 

I should like to sit down and talk over with each one of 
you some of your experiences and to know how you bring 
about a successful arrangement of things. I should like l<> 
talk w T ith my friend from Ohio as to how he gets along 
with a Republican legislature. I could tell him thai there 
are troubles even when you have a Congress that is - ominally 
of your own party. 

Gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you here — 
delighted to hope and feel that this is the beginning of con- 
ferences which are certain to lead in the end to an adjustment 
of State legislation that shall make our country capable 
of doing so much more team work in the public good than 
we ever have before thought possible. 



558 [PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you all to-night in 
the White House and of meeting you to-morrow night again. 
The trip down the Mississippi River, and my trip through 
the country, gave me the opportunity to meet most of the 
governors of the States, and it is a great pleasure, I assure 
you, to renew the acquaintance thus so pleasantly begun. 



LXIX 

REMARKS AT THE BANQUET OF THE WASH- 
INGTON CORRAL OF THE MILITARY ORDER 
OF THE CARABAOS, NEW WILLARD 
HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(JANUARY 22, 1910) 

Mr. Carabao Paramount and other Carabaos, and those 
of us who are permitted to enjoy your hospitality: 

I AM sony to say that this is the first time I have had the 
privilege of attending a Carabao dinner. I am also 
sorry to say, if I understand the situation, thai I havenol been 
pressed to come to other dinners until this one because of the 
reforms that you have initiated so as to be certain that now 
a dinner shall be "dull and respectable." I don'i know 
whether it was with that in his mind that your presiding 
officer called on "my Brother Tillman" to open the ball; 
but after Brother Tillman got to work, the presiding officer 
looked to me like that farmer who yoked himself with a 
heifer and, when they started down the hill, overcome with 
the error he had made, said, "Here we conic, damn our fool 
souls, won't somebody stop us?" I don't know whether 
he struck the bottom yet or not, but in the interest of humanity 
I am going to do the best I can to head off that team. 

Now my friend, the distinguished Senator from South 
Carolina, I have known well, have been glad to know, have 
been honored by his friendship, and I want to assure yon 
that he is a good deal better fellow than you sometimes 
think from what he says. He is not always one who sits and 
talks, thinking about the race question and miscegenation 
and amalgamation and that sort of thing. He does have 
other thoughts, but when he gets on his feet and starts on 

559 



560 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

that slippery subject, it requires a good deal of force or a 
good deal of poise to keep him from going farther than he 
really wanted to go himself. 

Now he tells my friend from Cuba that we are going to 
annex Cuba. Well, I don't think so. He thinks that because 
Cuba has a race question, we have got to mix their race 
question with our race question and have a sort of result 
with sulphur rising from it that is going to consume the world. 
I don't believe that. I don't believe the Senator does, 
except as these words roll from his lips, and they have rolled 
from his lips now since '99 on the Senate floor, and from the 
stump, and have never accomplished anything in the election, 
and yet he can not get over it. 

The Philippine question or the Philippines as a subject 
present themselves to me in two different lights — in three 
perhaps: One in the picturesqueness of the reminiscences 
that come to you as you look back to the three or four years 
of life that you spent in that beautiful country under con- 
ditions sometimes of privation, sometimes of discomfort; 
but the discomfort, the privations disappear in your memory; 
and when the beauties and the strangeness of those islands 
and the life in them come back to you, and you do feel — 
I feel it myself — I know it exists, that "Call of the East" 
that Kipling speaks of in his poem, that makes you yearn 
to be back again on that beautiful Luneta in Manila, and 
see the sun go down over the mountains of Marivailes — a pic- 
ture matchless in all its coloring rises in your memory to make 
you thank God that you have had the opportunity to be there. 

Now in the history of our stay in the Philippines there 
were times when the army was to the front, when nothing 
but war was there; when the Filipino fighting as best he 
could and taking the instruments that the Lord had given 
him, among which were stealth and easy change from being 
a friend to an enemy and back again — there arose between 
the army and those little people a feeling of enmity, a feeling 
of contempt on the part of the American soldier for soldiers 
who would resort to the ruses that they resorted to, and 



AND STATE PAPERS .-,.,1 

which led to the killing f our brave men. It was inevitable 
that for a time a bitterness should exisl a..«I a contempl 
arise that should find its expression in some of these poems 
to which my friend the Senator has referred. Then you 
came, after the war disappeared, into contact with thai 
people, and found them after all a simple people, a ...wile, mis 
people, a people under the influence of the tropical sun, 
not too energetic, but a people who, childlike in their depend- 
ence, if they gave it to you, could win your affections a. few 
people could — at least that is the way I felt. I know they 
had a verse out there, "He may be "a brother of William 
H. Taft, but he ain't no friend of mine"; but that Mas because 
I occupied a different relation to him from thai which 
the army occupied toward him. 

Then there comes what the army did there. Mv friend, 
the Senator, thinks it was nothing to be proud of. That 
is because my friend the Senator does not know what the 
army did, and what the navy did in a less way. It was upon 
the army that there fell the burden of eliminating an insur- 
rection that extended the islands' full length, and they had 
to be divided up into five hundred different posts and they 
had to put small detachments of the army under command 
of lieutenants and second lieutenants, and even sergeants, and 
trust to the ability of the non-commissioned officer and the 
young commissioned officers to carry on independent cam- 
paigns in the neighborhood of the post to which they were 
assigned in stamping out this insurrection. No army, and 
I assert it without any fear of contradiction, could have 
offered that knowledge, that independence of judgment. 
that self-reliance on the part of those young officers that 

enabled it as a whole ultimately and quietly and soflh and 

— I had almost said — peaceably to bring about a condition 
of pacification in the islands and to stamp out an insurrection 
so difficult to overcome. And in those campaigns there was 
an opportunity for individual bravery and courage that is 
not exceeded by any opportunity in the Civil War or any 
other war that this country was engaged in. 



562 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

And this Signal Corps which was referred to to-night in 
a jocular way, may point to a record of loss in death and 
wounds in those islands that I think has been equaled by 
no other signal corps, and perhaps by no other corps in any 
other army. 

Now the Senator says that he has been allowed to think, 
but the officers of the army have not been. Well, I confess 
that under the circumstances, with the result of the fight, 
I think the army is ahead of the Senator. What we went 
to the Philippines to do was to defeat the fleet of an enemy 
in a war that was begun as no other war in the history of 
the world — no other foreign war — from pure altruism; and 
we got into the islands and we had them on our hands before 
we knew what the consequences were to be. And when they 
came into our hands there seemed to us ■ — - at least to those of 
us who were responsible — and my friend the Senator has 
had the advantage for the last fifteen years — I hope he may 
continue to have it for fifteen years — of not being at all 
responsible for the Government — the obligation of doing 
the right thing. The question was, "What are we going 
to do?" Are we going to let those islands go into chaos; 
are we going to turn them back to Spain with the charges 
against the domination of Spain that were made? Or are 
we to take them ourselves and develop them as best we 
may under our institutions ? Now my friend the Senator 
is troubled about taxation without representation, and about 
the Declaration of Independence. I am not going into those 
arguments and I am not going to point out to my friend 
the Senator some of the most glaring instances that I could 
point out in his view of the Constitution in South Carolina 
and his view of the Philippines. What I do say is, and I 
say it with a knowledge of McKinley, and I know the Senator 
and I share in the respect for President McKinley's memory, 
that President McKinley went into those islands with great 
reluctance and assumed the burdens which were most heavy 
to him of introducing a government there which should be 
the best for the islands. Now, of course it is a matter of 



AND STATE PAPERS .,.,:; 

dispute how good a government we have there. Having 
taken part in its formation, perhaps it is improper or at 
least I speak as a prejudiced witness bul I believe thai the 
ten years of government in the Philippines has made thai 
people a far happier people than they would have been under 
any other conditions that might have been presented by 
our taking a different course. They enjoy to-day a free 
trade tariff on the one hand and the right to sell in a pro- 
tected market on the other. That was long coming, bul 
we have ultimately secured it. We have saved the rice of 
our friend the Senator from South Carolina. We were asked 
to stave off a little bit of the injury to the tobacco and the 
sugar of other parts of the country. They are now I >egi nning, 
as I believe, an industrial progress there that means an eleva- 
tion of those people intellectually and spiritually in such a 
way that we can continue to extend to them, from time l<> 
time, additional self-government. We now have put them 
under one chamber which is elected popularly, sharing the 
government with a commission upon which there are a 
number of Filipinos. 

Now the cost has been considerable. Five hundred mil- 
lion dollars has been mentioned. My impression is thai the 
cost is not so much, and that will have to include whal is 
the cost of a war, and a war always costs most heavily. Hut 
the actual cost depends upon how you count the army, 
whether you would count it that we would have an army 
of the present size if we did not have the Philippines, or 
would not. Personally, I should have an army of this size, 
whether we have the Philippines or not, and therefore I 
don't think the cost goes beyond six or seven million dollars a 
year. Counting it the other way it is very considerably more. 

Now a third question which arises is the effect of the 
Spanish War and our going to the Philippines upon lli<- 
country at large, upon our standing before the nations of 
the world, and upon our opportunities for usefulness as a 
prosperous, powerful country. And I think in that record 
perhaps the Spanish War and what followed are more impor- 



564 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

tant than in any other aspect. I know it is easy to make fun 
of a proposition that we as a nation have an obligation because 
of our power and wealth to assist other nations that may 
be thrown upon us in such a way as to call for our aid and 
support; but I do believe in the brotherhood of nations, and 
I do believe that nations are like members of a community 
and a neighborhood where the wealthy and the powerful 
and the more fortunate owe it to the weaker and the less 
fortunate to assist them when circumstances point in that 
direction. 

As a matter of fact the result of the Philippine War, our 
ownership of the Philippines, our ownership of Porto Rico, 
our friendship for and close relation to Cuba, our assertion of 
an interest in South America and an interest in the Isthmus 
bringing us into close relations with Central America, and 
our assertion of a right to the "open door" in China, have 
put us in a position forefront among the nations of the world ; 
and I believe we have no right to neglect the opportunity 
to take such a position or the opportunity to use that position 
for the progress of civilization in the world. Now the result 
of that war, short as it was, involving as little blood as it 
did, was remarkable. The expansion of the United States 
as a great world power dates from that time. We are not 
going about seeking to aggrandize ourselves, seeking for 
territory in China or anywhere else. 

We are building the Panama Canal now for the benefit 
of the world, and at the same time to aid us in our commerce 
and to strengthen and double the force of our Navy. The 
broadening of our people with regard to those problems, the 
liberalizing of the army, or making the army a body — and 
especially the officers — a body of well-read gentlemen, men 
of affairs — all date from that time. 

Now I deprecate the tone of my friend Senator Tillman's 
statement that we are ashamed of all this. Well, I am not 
ashamed of it, because if it had not come that way I should 
not have been in the White House, I know, and if he expects 
me to shed tears over that lie is mistaken. I think I know 



AND STATE PAPERS ;,,;;, 

our army and navy well enough to know thai while they sine 
these songs that at times hoid up to ridicule our "little brown 
brothers" in the Philippines, they look back to thai service 
with pride, and with the belief that they accomplished u l,,,i 
no other army could have accomplished "in the same lime and 
under the same circumstances, with as little blood and as 
little oppression. It may be as I say that I am a prejudiced 
witness. I am. Nevertheless a witness may be prejudiced 
but he may have such an advantage in opportunities lor 
observation which are denied to those who are only free from 
prejudice, as to make his evidence better than the judge who 
sits on the case. I am sorry I did not have the opportunity 
of welcoming to the Philippine Islands my Brother Tillman. 
There were some of his Democratic brethren whom 1 enter- 
tained there with great pleasure and into their sphere of 
vision I think we introduced some things thai changed their 
aspect, changed their views I should say, of the situation 
there. They deplored what we had to do, but they thought 
we were doing it well. The truth is, while my friend the 
Senator comes from South Carolina and the South, I think 
I know something of the attitude of his brethren in the South 
with reference to the Philippine Islands and this general 
policy of expansion, and I think we could have a vote on that 
alone without introducing the race question and all that sort 
of thing — the wisdom of our taking the Philippines as we 
have taken them, and developing them as we are developing 
them, teaching them English and extending to them, as they 
show themselves fit, self-government. Then the time may 
come, and I hope it may come soon, when they shall I it- 
ready to take over a government like that of Australia or 
Canada, and I say so not because we might not be willing 
to part with them, but because they will find that under tin- 
present arrangement, under the tariff as arranged there and 
the tariff as arranged here, it is greatly to their advantage to 
retain some sort of bond, no matter how light, which will 
justify their continuing to enjoy the benefit of our markets 
with a free trade tariff toward the Orient. 



566 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

And now, my friends, I have talked a good deal longer 
than I intended to; but my friend the Senator whispered to 
me that he would not have said a word if he had not desired 
to start me up, so I had to gratify his desire and show him 
that he was successful. I thank you my friends for giving 
me this opportunity to bring back the reminiscences of the 
Philippines. There were times in the Philippines when the 
nervous strain upon those who were responsible was tremen- 
dous and the more tremendous because we were so far re- 
moved, it seemed, from Washington and the people of the 
United States. There were times, and there were many, when 
the beauties of life in that country, when the associations that 
we made there, when the feeling that we did have a people 
who were grateful at times and who listened to us as children, 
depending on us and having confidence in us — gave us a 
pleasure in doing the good which we thought we were doing, 
a pleasure that knows no measure, for there is nothing in life 
equal to the consciousness of having attempted to do good 
for a people and having in a measure succeeded. 

There is one other thought that I wanted to give you, and 
that was in relation to the carabao. He too received, I must 
say, unmerited condemnation from my friend the Senator, not 
for lack of sympathy with the dumb beast, but again for lack 
of opportunity for observation. There is no animal that is the 
friend of the Filipino like the carabao. He moves slowly, he 
moves deliberately, but he moves always in the right direction, 
and he gets there after a time without respect to obstacles. 
It is unwise in dealing with the Filipino or in dealing with 
anything in the tropics to suppose that you are going to 
make headway suddenly. The carabao represents the right 
policy in working out the problems in the East, and I con- 
gratulate you on having selected that animal as an indication 
that you know how to accomplish things in the Philippines. 
Ill as I was in 1902, for three or four months, and confined 
to my bed in the First Reserve Hospital in the Philippines, 
Mrs. Moses sent me a full set of Kipling's volumes, and in 
the head note to one of the chapters entitled "Naulahka" 



AND STATE TAPERS .-,,;: 

I found a verse that gave me a great deal of consolation and 
it I can remember it I want to recite il as a justification for 
your selection of this animal as typical of yom policy and 
our policy and our hopes and yours in the Philippines : ' 

Now it is not good for the Christian's health to hustle the Aryan 
brown; 

For the Christian riles and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the 
Christian down; 

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, with the name of 

the late deceased; 
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here who tried to hustle the 

East." 



LXX 

ADDRESS AT THE LINCOLN BIRTHDAY BAN- 
QUET OF THE REPUBLICAN CLUB OF 
THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

(FEBRUARY 12, 1910) 

Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Republican Club, and 
Fellow-Guests: 

THE birthday of the man whose memory we celebrate 
to-night is an appropriate occasion for renewing our 
expressions of respect and affection for the Republican party, 
and our pledges to keep the part which it plays in the history 
of this country as high and as useful as it was during the 
administration of Abraham Lincoln. The trials which he 
had to undergo as Piesident, the political storms which the 
party had to weather during the Civil War, the divisions in 
the party itself between the radical anti-slavery element and 
those who were most conservative in observing the con- 
stitutional limitations, are most interesting reading, and 
serve to dwarf and minimize the trials through which the 
Republican party is now passing, and restore a sense of 
proportion to those who allow themselves to be daunted 
and discouraged, in the face of a loss of popular confidence 
thought to be indicated by the tone of the press. 

In what respect has the Republican party failed in its 
conduct of the Government and the enactment of laws, 
to perform its duty ? It was returned to power a year ago 
last November by a very large majority, after a campaign 
in which it made certain promises in its platform, and those 
promises it has either substantially complied with or it 
is about to perform within the present session of Congress. 

Let us take up these promises in order: 

568 






PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 569 

In the Republican platform of last year, upon which the 
campaign was made, appears the following plank in regard 
to the tariff: 

''The Republican party declares unequivocally \\>v the 
revision of the tariff by a special session of Congress immedi- 
ately following the inauguration of the next President, and 
commends the steps already taken to this end in I Ik- work 
assigned to the appropriate committees of Congress which 
are now investigating the operation and effect of existing 
schedules. In all tariff legislation the true principle of 
protection is best maintained by the imposition of such 
duties as will equal the difference between the cosl of pro- 
duction at home and abroad, together with a reasonable 
profit to American industries. We favor the establish- 
ment of maximum and minimum rates to be administered 
by the President under limitations fixed in the law, the maxi- 
mum to be available to meet discriminations by foreign 
countries against American goods entering their markets, 
and the minimum to represent the normal measure of pro- 
tection at home, the aim and purpose of the Republican 
policy being not only to preserve, without excessive duties, 
that security against foreign competition to which American 
manufacturers, farmers, and producers are entitled, but 
also to maintain the high standard of living of the wage 
earners of this country, who are the most direct beneficiaries 
of the protective system. Between the United States and 
the Philippines, we believe in a free interchange of products 
with such limitations as to sugar and tobacco as will afford 
adequate protection to domestic interests." 

We did revise the tariff. It is impossible to revise the 
tariff without awakening the active participation in In- 
formation of the schedules of those producers whose busi 
ness will be affected by a change. This is the inherenl diffi- 
culty in the adoption or revision of a tariff by our repre- 
sentative system. 



570 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

Nothing was expressly said in the platform that this revision 
was to be a downward revision. The implication that it 
was to be generally downward, however, was fairly given 
by the fact that those who uphold a protective tariff system 
defend it by the claim that after an industry has been estab- 
lished by shutting out foreign competition, the domestic 
competition will lead to the reduction in price so as to make 
the original high tariff unnecessary. 

In the new tariff there were 654 decreases, 220 increases, 
and 1,150 items of the dutiable list unchanged, but this did 
not represent the fair proportion in most of the reductions 
and the increases, because the duties were decreased on 
those articles which had a consumption value of nearly 
$5,000,000,000, while they were increased on those articles 
which had a consumption value of less than $1,000,000,000. 
Of the increases, the consumption value of those affected 
which are of luxuries, to wit, silks, wines, liquors, per- 
fumeries, pomades, and like articles, amounted to nearly 
$600,000,000; while the increases on articles not of luxury 
affected but about $300,000,000, as against decreases 
on about $5,000,000,000 of consumption. I repeat, 
therefore, that this was a downward revision. It was 
not downward in reference to silks or liquors or high- 
priced cottons in the nature of luxuries. It was downward 
in respect to nearly all other articles except woolens, which 
were not affected at all. Certainly it was not promised 
that the rates on luxuries should be reduced. The revenues 
were falling off, there was a deficit promised, and it was 
essential that the revenues should be increased. It was no 
violation of the promise to increase the revenues by increasing 
the tax on luxuries, provided there was downward revision 
on all other articles. The one substantial defect in com- 
pliance with the promise of the platform was the failure to 
reduce woolens. Does that defect so color the action 
of the Republican party as to make it a breach of faith 
leading- to its condemnation ? I do not think so. Parties 
are like men. Revisions are like the work of men — they are 



AND STATE PAPERS 571 

not perfect. The change which this tariff effected was a 
marked change downward in the rate of the duties, and it 
was a recognition by the party thai the time had come w hen 
instead of increasing duties they must be decreased, 
when the party recognized in its platform, and in much 
of what it did, that the proper measure of protection was 
the difference in cost in the production of articles here and 
abroad, including a fair profit to the manufacturer. There 
was a dispute as to what that difference is, and whether 
it was recognized in the change of all the duties down- 
ward. Particularly was this the case on the matt rials dial 
enter into the manufacture of paper and paper itself. The 
reduction on print paper was from $G to $3.75, or about .'IT 
per cent. 

There was a real difference of opinion on the question of 
fact whether the new duty correctly measured the difference 
in the cost of production of print paper abroad and prinl 
paper here. It affected the counting-rooms of the newspapers 
of the country and invited the attention of the newspaper 
proprietors who had associated themselves together like other 
interests for the purpose of securing a reduction of the tariff. 
The failure to make a larger reduction showed itself clearly 
in the editorial columns of a great number of the newspapers, 
whatever their party predilection. The amount of misrep- 
resentation to which the tariff bill in its effect as a downward 
revision bill was subjected has never been exceeded in this 
country, and it will doubtless take the actual operation of 
the tariff bill for several years to show to the country exactly 
what the legislation and its effect are. It is perhaps too 
early to institute the fairest comparisons between the Payne- 
Aldrich Bill and the bill which preceded it, but the Payne- 
Aldrich Bill has been in operation now for six months, ami 
figures are at hand from which we may make a reasonable 
inference, first as to whether it is a revision downward, and, 
second, as to its capacity for producing revenue; for it 
must be borne in mind that the passage of the law was 
demanded not only for the purpose of changing rates in 



572 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

their effect upon the industries of the country, but also 
for the purpose of increasing the revenues; and the 
success of the measure is to be judged by its results in both 
these respects. 

The Bureau of Statistics is authority for the statement 
that during the first six months of the operation of the Payne 
law, which has just ended, the average rate of duty paid 
on all imports was 21.09 per cent, ad valorem. The average 
rate of duty paid on all imports for the same six months for the 
four preceding years under the Dingley law was 24.03. 
This would show that the reduction in the Payne law is 2.94 
per cent, of the value of the goods, or that the reduction below 
the previous tariff rates is 12 per cent, showing a downward 
revision to this extent. But this is not all. Under the 
Payne law 51.6 per cent, of the gross imports for the last six 
months have been entered free, while under the four years 
preceding for the same six months the free list amounted to 
45.46 per cent, of the total importations; so there was not 
only a reduction of duty on gross imports of about 12 per cent, 
but also an enlargement of about the same percentage of 
the free list. 

For the production of revenue, the Payne law is even more 
an improvement on the Dingley Bill. During the six months 
that the Payne tariff was in force, from August 5 to the night 
of February 5, the customs receipts amounted to $166,002,- 
856.54. Under the Gorman-Wilson tariff the semi-annual 
average was $83,147,625.90. Under the Dingley tariff the 
semi-annual average was $130,265,841.84. Under the Wilson 
tariff the monthly average was $13,857,937.65. Under 
the Dingley tariff the monthly average was $21,710,973.64; 
while under the Payne tariff the monthly average 
has been $27,667,142.75, or 100 per cent, greater than 
the monthly average under the Wilson tariff, and 26 per 
cent, greater than the monthly average under the Dingley 
tariff. 

Of course as the country increases in population, the 
customs receipts increase, but even considering the popula- 



AND STATE PAPERS 

tion, the increase in the tariff receipts has been marked. 
Under the Wilson tariff the average annual customs receipts 
per capita were $2.38; under the Dingley tariff $3.23; while 
under the Payne tariff they are $3.71. 

For the six months that the Payne (arid' has been in force 
the total receipts both from customs and internal revenue 
have been $323,899,231.91, while the disbursements have 
been $332,783,283.08, showing an excess of disbursements 
over receipts of about $8,884,051.17, with no collection as 
yet from the corporation tax. For the corresponding 
period last year the expenditures exceeded the receipts by 
over $40,000,000. This showing indicates that under the 
present customs law the deficit will be promptly wiped out. 
and that to meet our normal expenditures we shall have ample 
revenue. 

I therefore venture to repeat the remark I have had 
occasion to make before, that the present customs law is the 
best customs law that has ever been passed, and it is mosl 
significant in this: that it indicates on the part of the Republi- 
can party the adoption of a policy to change from an increase 
in duties to a reduction of them, and to effect an increase 
of revenues at the same time. 

The act has furnished to the Executive the power to apply 
the maximum and minimum clause in order to prevent 
undue discrimination on the part of foreign countries, and 
this is securing additional concessions in respect to impositions 
on our foreign trade. 

The act has done justice to the Philippine Islands by 
giving them free trade with the United States. 

More than all this, the new tariff act has provided for the 
appointment of a tariff board to secure" impartial evidence 
upon which, when a revision of the tariff seems wise, we shall 
have at hand the data from which can be determined with 
some degree of accuracy the difference between the cost of 
producing articles abroad and the cost of producing them 
in this country. 

The great difficulty in the hearing and discussion of the 



574 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

present tariff bill was the absence of satisfactory and credible 
evidence on either side of the issues as to low or high tariffs. 
The importer on the one hand and the manufacturer 
on the other were present to give their fallible judgments 
affected by their own pecuniary interests as to the facts 
under investigation. Men who were struggling to find 
the truth were greatly perplexed by the conflicting testi- 
mony. 

The tariff bill authorizes the President to expend $75,000 in 
employing persons to assist him in the administration of the 
maximum and minimum clause and to assist him and other 
officers of the Government in the administration of the 
tariff law. I have construed this to mean that I may use the 
board appointed under this power not only to look into the 
foreign tariffs, but also to examine the question with respect 
to each item in our tariff bill, what the cost of production 
of the merchandise taxed is, and what its cost is abroad. 
This is not an easy task for impartial experts, and it requires 
a large force. I expect to apply to Congress this year for 
the sum of $250,000 to organize a force through which this 
investigation may go on, the results to be recorded for the 
use of the Executive and Congress when they desire to 
avail themselves of the record. In this way any subsequent 
revision may be carried on with the aid of data secured 
officially and without regard to its argumentative effect 
upon the question of raising or lowering duties. Taken 
as a whole, therefore, I do not hesitate to repeat that the 
Republican party has substantially complied with its promise 
in respect to the tariff, and that it has set itself strongly in 
the right direction toward lower tariffs and furnished the 
means by which such lower tariffs can be properly and 
safely fixed. 

An investigation by the tariff board of the sort proposed 
will certainly take a full two years or longer. Meantime 
the operation of the present tariff promises to be consistent 
with the prosperity of the country and with the furnishing 
of sufficient funds with which to meet the very heavy but 



AND STATE PAPERS 575 

necessary expenditures of carrying on our great Govern 

ment. 

The Republican national platform contained the following: 

''We favor the establishment of a postal savings bank 
system for the convenience of the people and the encourage- 
ment of thrift." 

A bill has been introduced to establish a postal savings 
bank. The great difficulty in the bill seems to have been 
to secure a proper provision for the management and invesl 
ment of the money deposited. The great advantage of a 
postal savings bank is the encouragement to thrift of those 
whose fears of the solvency of any depository except a govern- 
ment depository tempts them away from saving. A govern- 
ment promise to repay seems to be specially effective in 
leading people to save and deposit their savings. The 
machinery of the Post-Office, with its 60,000 post-offices 
and 40,000 money-order offices, offers an economical and 
far-reaching machine for the reception in places remote 
from banks, and among people who fear banks, of that which 
but for the opportunity, they would not save, but spend. The 
low interest offered to it, that of 2 per cent., prevents such 
postal savings banks from interfering with regular savings 
banks whose rate of interest always is in excess of 2 per 
cent. 

In the present stage of the Senate bill there have been 
inserted amendments drawn apparently for the purpose of 
having money deposited as savings in government post- 
offices distributed through the locality where deposited in 
the banks, state and national, and so deposited as to make 
it impossible for the trustees of the fund appointed under 
the law to withdraw the money for investment in any other 
form. I regard such an amendment as likely to defeat the 
law. First, because it takes away a feature which ought to 
be present in the law to assure its constitutionality. If tin- 
law provided that the trustees to be appointed under the 



576 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

law with the funds thus deposited could meet the financial 
exigencies of the Government by purchase or redemption 
of the government 2 per cent, and other bonds the measure 
would certainly be within the Federal power, because the 
postal banks would then clearly be an instrument of the 
National Government in borrowing money. We have 
now about $700,000,000 of 2 per cent, bonds with respect to 
which we owe a duty to the owners to see that those bonds 
may be taken care of without reduction below the par value 
thereof, because they were forced upon national banks at 
this low rate in order that the banks might have a basis of 
circulation. 

This implied obligation of the Government, the postal 
savings bank funds would easily enable it to meet. Secondly, 
if the funds are to be arbitrarily deposited in all banks, state 
and national, without national supervision over the state 
banks, and a panic were to come, it is difficult to see how 
the Government could meet its obligations to its postal sav- 
ings bank depositors, because with every bank suspending 
payment, the funds of the postal savings banks would be 
beyond the control of the Government, and we should have 
a financial disaster greater than any panic we have heretofore 
met. A provision that when the money is not needed to 
invest in government bonds or to redeem the same it may 
be deposited in national banks, in the neighborhood of 
the place of deposit, will avoid the great danger of a panic 
and will strengthen a banking system which is an arm of the 
Federal Government. I sincerely hope that before the 
measure is hammered into its final shape it may take 
on these characteristics which shall give it a constitutional 
validity and sound financial strength and usefulness. Those 
who insist upon the elimination of these two necessary char- 
acteristic features of the bill will put the party in the position 
where it can not hope to escape the charge that it is not in 
good faith seeking the passage of a postal savings bank act, 
and is not seeking, therefore, to comply with the promise of 
the Republican platform in that regard. 



AND STATE PAPERS 
On the subject of railroads the Republican platform said: 

"We approve the enactment of the Railroad Rate Law and 
the vigorous enforcement by the present administration of 
the statutes against rebates and discriminations as a result 
of which the advantages formerly possessed by the large 
shipper oyer the small shipper have substantially disappeared ; 
and in this connection we commend the appropriation by the 
present Congress to enable the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission to thoroughly investigate and give publicity to the 
accounts of interstate railways. We believe, however, 
that the Interstate Commerce Law should be further amended 
so as to give railroads the right to make and publish 
traffic agreements subject to the approval of the commission, 
but maintaining always the principle of competition between 
naturally competing lines and avoiding the common control 
of such lines by any means whatsoever. We favor such 
national legislation and supervision as will prevent the future 
overissue of stocks and bonds by interstate carriers." 

A bill to carry out these declarations has been introduced 
in both the House and the Senate, and is now being con- 
sidered before the appropriate committees of those two 
bodies, and there is every hope that the bills thus introduced 
in substantially the same shape as introduced will pass and 
be enacted into law. Indeed this railroad measure goes 
further than the promise of the platform, for while it subjects 
the issue of stock and bonds to the restrictive supervision of 
the commission and prevents future watering of securities and 
forbids the acquisition by a railroad company of stock in 
a competing line, it also puts very much more power into the 
hands of the commission for the regulation of rales, and it 
facilitates in every way the ease of supervision by the com- 
mission of the railroads to secure acomplianee by the railroads 
with the rights of the public and of the shipper. The bill 
was prepared by the Attorney-General, after a full conference 
with the Interstate Commerce Commission, with the repre- 



578 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

sentatives of the shippers and with the representatives of 
the railroads, and while it was not the result of an agreement 
between all the parties in interest, it was drafted with a 
view to meeting all the fair objections and suggestions 
made by every one of them. 
The platform further provided: 

"The Republican party will uphold at all times the authority 
and integrity of the courts. State and Federal, and will ever 
insist that their powers to enforce their process and to 
protect life, liberty, and property shall be preserved inviolate. 
We believe, however, that the rules of procedure in the 
Federal courts with respect to the issuance of the writ of 
injunction should be more accurately defined by statute 
and that no injunction or temporary restraining order 
should be issued without notice, except where irreparable 
injury would result from delay, in which case a speedy hearing 
thereafter should be granted." 

A bill to carry out exactly this promise has been intro- 
duced into both the Senate and House and will doubtless 
come up for consideration and passage. The bill does 
not go as far as Mr. Gompers and the Federation of Labor 
demand, but it goes as far as the Republican convention 
was willing to let- it go, and it is so drawn as to make an abuse 
of the issuance of injunction without notice very improbable. 
It requires that no injunction shall be issued without full 
notice and hearing, unless to prevent irreparable injury, 
and that in such case the court shall make a finding from 
the evidence adduced, pointing out what the injury antici- 
pated is and why irreparable, and why there is not time to 
give notice; and after the injunction shall be issued with- 
out notice, it is provided that such injunction shall lose its 
force at the expiration of five days, unless a hearing 
is had. 

The platform also promised statehood to Arizona and 
New Mexico, and the bill providing such statehood has 



AND STATE PAPERS 

passed the House and has been favorably considered 
by the committee of the Senate, so thai there seems to be no 
reasonable doubt that this promise will be fully kept. 

The Republicans in their platform spoke further, as 

follows: 

"We indorse the movement inaugurated by the Adminis- 
tration for the conservation of natural resources; we approve 
all measures to prevent the waste of timber; we commend 
the work now going on for the reclamation of arid lands, 
and reaffirm the Republican policy of the free distribution 
of the available areas of the public domain to the landless 
settler. No obligation of the future is more insistent and 
none will result in greater blessings to posterity. In line 
with this splendid undertaking is the further duty, equally 
imperative, to enter upon a systematic improvement 
upon a large and comprehensive plan, just to all portions 
of the country, of the waterways, harbors, and Great 
Lakes, whose natural adaptability to the increasing 
traffic of the land is one of the greatest gifts of a benign 
Providence." 

In accordance with this plank, measures for the con- 
servation of the public domain, for the reclassification of 
lands according to their greatest utility, and the vesting 
of power in the Executive to dispose of coal, phosphate, oil, 
and mineral lands, and of water-power sites in such a 
way as to prevent their monopoly, and union of ownership 
in one syndicate, or combination, have been already 
introduced, and will doubtless in a form approved by 
Congress be made into law. The subject has attracted the 
widest interest, and its importance is becoming more and 
more impressed upon the American people. 

The river and harbor bill, which has just been reported 
by the River and Harbor Committee of the House, has been 
framed with a view to complying with the plank of the 
platform I have just above quoted. It has taken the plan 



580 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

for the improvement of the Ohio from Pittsburg to Cairo 
as a project to be carried out in a certain number of years; 
and it has treated similar projects for the improvement 
of the Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis, for the 
improvement of the Mississippi from St. Paul to St. Louis, 
and of the same river from St. Louis to Cairo; and by con- 
tinuing contracts and regular appropriations, these projects 
will go on until they are completed. This is a change from 
the previous plans, and is the result of an extended popular 
agitation in favor of such a system. 

Following the panic of 1907, the governmental revenues 
fell off and the expenditures continued as before, leaving a 
deficit for the years 1907, 1908, and 1909. There was, how- 
ever, no deficit in the whole administration of Mr. Roosevelt 
when the expenses are compared with the revenues. Indeed 
it will be found that under the operation of the Dingley Bill, 
which covers most of his administration and the first six 
months of the present administration, the surplus on the 
whole was about $250,000,000. At the beginning of this 
Administration, however it was perfectly evident that with 
expenses increasing and revenues decreasing, there would 
be a continuous deficit, and this the Republican party, with 
its majority in Congress and the responsibility placed upon 
it, has proposed to meet by reducing expenditures and increas- 
ing revenues. 

I have already shown what the increase in revenues has 
been. The present administration in its estimates for 
the year ending June 30, 1911, cut them some forty odd 
million dollars below the actual appropriations of the year 
before, and now it is proposed to appoint a joint commission, 
consisting of Senators, Representatives, and members 
appointed by the Executive, who shall examine the organiza- 
tion of the various departments and bureaus, and by the 
elimination of duplication, the consolidation of bureaus, and 
the increase in efficiency of the individual civil servant 
shall decrease the regular permanent cost of governmental 
operation. 



AND STATE PAPERS 581 

With respect to trusts the Republican party spoke as 
follows in its platform: 

■ "The Republican party passed the Sherman Anti-trust Law 
over Democratic opposition and enforced il after Democratic 
dereliction. It has been a wholesome instrument for good 
in the hands of a wise and fearless administration. Hut 
experience has shown that, its effectiveness can be strength- 
ened and its real objects better attained by such amendments 
as will give to the Federal Government greater supervision 
and control over and secure greater publicity in the manage- 
ment of that class of corporations engaged in interstate com- 
merce having power and opportunity to effect monopolies." 

Since this plank was adopted prosecutions of the Tobacco 
trust and the Standard Oil trust, begun in the last administra- 
tion, have gone on and have resulted in decrees in the Court 
of Appeals of the Second and Eighth circuits, which are now- 
pending on appeal in the Supreme Court. The decrees in 
each case tear apart the congeries of subordinate corpora- 
tions which, united by holding companies, make up the trust 
in each case and enjoin individuals from a further mainte- 
nance of the illegal combination of such corporations to carry 
on the business for which it was organized. 

It has been said that the Republican party made a 
promise so to amend the law as to ameliorate and soften the 
application of the trust law in its interdiction upon business 
as conducted by the greatest corporations, but I find nothing 
in the platform to justify such a construction. The principle 
of the anti-trust law is that those engaged in modern business, 
especially of manufacture and transportation, shall pursue 
the policy with respect to their competitors of "Live and 
let live," and that they shall not use the bigness of their con- 
cerns to frighten exclusive patronage from customers and 
eliminate smaller concerns from competition and thus control 
output and fix prices. 

The Attorney-General has prepared a bill which, he 



582 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

thinks, and I think, will offer to those who wish to pursue 
a lawful method of business, the means of easily doing so. 
A lawful interstate business under the protection of a Federal 
charter which, while it will subject the business of the concern 
to the closest scrutiny of government officers, will save the 
business from harassment by State authorities and will 
give it that protection which a peaceful pursuit of its business 
as a Federal corporation will necessarily secure it. This 
measure has not met the approval of those who fear too 
great concentration of power in the Federal Government, 
of those who deny the right of the Federal Government 
in such cases to grant incorporation. I believe the act to 
be constitutional, and I believe that if enforced it would 
furnish a solution of our present difficulties; but as it was not 
specifically declared for in the Republican platform, I 
do not feel justified in asking the adoption of such an act 
as a party matter. I have brought it forward, however, 
as a suggestion for meeting the difficulties which are likely 
to be presented in the prosecution of suspected illegal 
trusts as a means by which they can put their houses in 
order and take their places among those engaged in legitimate 
business. 

If the other measures to which I have referred are enacted 
into law, and the pledges of the Republican party performed, 
there would seem to be no good reason why the party should 
not receive renewed approval by the electors of the country 
in the coming congressional campaign. But there are signs 
which many construe as an indication that the Republican 
majority in the present Congress will change to a Democratic 
majority in the next. This is based chiefly on the dissensions in 
the Republican party, and upon the very severe attacks, made 
by a great many of the newspapers having Republican tend- 
encies, upon the party and its leaders in Congress and in the 
nation. I am glad to say that so far as the legislation which 
I have indicated above is concerned, there seems to be a 
clear party majority in both Houses in favor of its passage 
and the consequent redemption of the party pledges. There 



AND STATE PAPERS 

is, however, a very decided difference as to the proper rules 
to prevail in the House and as to the personnel of the leader- 
ship. 

It would seem as if these questions were questions that 
might well be solved within the party lines, but the) have been 
so acute as to produce what has been called an insurrection 
and to awaken the country over a controversy between the 
insurgents and the regulars, so-called. I am hopeful thai 
as we approach the lines of battle for the nexl year, the settle- 
ment of these internal questions can be effected withoul 
such a breach of the party as to prevent our presenting an 
unbroken front to the enemy. 

We among the Republicans may be discouraged when 
we consider our own dissensions, but when we look to the 
possibility of any united action on the part of the Democrats 
for any policy or any line of policies we must take courage. 
It was General Grant who said that when he first wenl 
into battle he had a great deal of fear, but he overcame thai 
feeling by maintaining in his mind the constant thoughl 
how much more afraid his opponent was. And so we who 
find ourselves at times given over to the thought that Repub- 
lican control is at an end should not forget to consider nol 
only our own factional strife but also that of our ancienl 
enemy. If the Democratic party were a solid, cohesive 
opposition, guided by one principle and following the same 
economic views as a whole, the situation would be far more 
discouraging than it is. The Republican party has been 
the party responsible for the Government for the last seven- 
teen years. It has discharged those responsibilities with 
wonderful success. The problems growing out of the 
Spanish war and those which have come from the rapid 
accumulation of wealth, and the greed for power of its accu- 
mulators, it has fallen to the party to meet, and while they 
have not yet all had a perfect solution, the record Is one of 
which we have no reason to be ashamed. 

Mr. Roosevelt aroused the country and the people to the 
danger we were in of having all our politics and all our places 



584 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

of governmental authority controlled in corporate interests 
and to serve the greed of selfish but powerful men. During 
his two terms of office, by what almost may be compared 
to a religious crusade, he aroused the people to the point of 
protecting themselves and the public interest against the 
aggressions of corporate greed, and left public opinion in an 
apt condition to bring about the reforms needed to clinch 
his policies and to make them permanent in the form of 
enacted law. 

But as an inevitable aftermath of such agitation, we find 
a condition of hysteria on the part of certain individuals, 
and on the part of others a condition of hypocrisy manifesting 
itself in the blind denunciation of all wealth and in the 
impeachment of the motives of men of the highest character, 
and by demagogic appeals to the imagination of a people 
greatly aroused upon the subject of purity and honesty in 
the administration of government. The tendency is to 
resent attachment to party or party organization, and to an 
assertion of individual opinion and purpose at the expense 
of party discipline. The movement is toward factionalism 
and small groups, rather than toward large party organiza- 
tion, and the leaders of the party organization are subjected 
to the severest attacks and to the questioning of their motives 
without any adequate evidence to justify it. 

I am far from saying that the Republican party is perfect. 
No party which has exercised such power as it has exercised 
for the last seventeen years could be expected to maintain 
either in its rank and file or in its management men of the 
purest and highest motives only. And I am the last one 
to advocate any halt in the prosecution and condemnation 
of Republicans, however prominent and powerful, whose 
conduct requires criminal or other prosecution and condem- 
nation. It should be well understood that with the Repub- 
lican party in its present condition, with its various divisions 
subjected to the cross fire of its own newspapers and its 
own factions, any halt or failure on the part of those in 
authority to punish and condemn corruption or corrupt 



AND STATE PAPERS 



585 



methods will be properly visited upon the party itself, however 

many good men it contains. 

We shall be called upon to respond to the charge in Hie 
next campaign that the tariff, for which we are responsible, 
has raised prices. If the people listen to reasonable argu- 
ment, it will be easy to demonstrate thai high prices proceed 
from an entirely different cause, and thai the presenl tariff, 
being largely a revision downward, except with respect 
to silks and liquors, which are luxuries, can nol be charged 
with having increased any prices. But this will nol prevent 
our Democratic friends from arguing on the principle of 
post hoc propter hoc, that because high prices followed the 
tariff, therefore they are the result of it. And we must not 
be blind to the weight of such an argument in an electoral 
campaign. The reason for the rise in the cost of neces- 
sities can easily be traced to the increase in our measure 
of values, the precious metal, gold, and possibly in sonic cases 
to the combinations in restraint of trade. The question of 
the tariff must be argued out. The prejudice created by the 
early attacks upon the bill and the gross misrepresentations 
of its character must be met by a careful presentation of the 
facts as to the contents of the bill and also as to its actual 
operation and statistics shown thereby. I believe we have 
a strong case if we can only get it into the minds of the 
people. Should disaster follow us and the Republican major- 
ity in the House become a minority in the next House, it 
may be possible that in the Democratic exercise of its power, 
the people of this country will see which is the parly of 
accomplishment, which is the party of arduous deeds done, 
and which is the party of words and irresponsible opposition. 

I only want one more word. From time to time attacks 
are made upon the Administration, on the ground thai its 
policy tends to create a panic in Wall Street and to disturb 
business. All I have to say upon that subject is this: That 
certainly no one responsible for a government like ours 
would foolishly run amuck in business and destroy values 
and confidence just for the pleasure of doing so. No one 



58G PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

has a motive as strong as the Administration in power to 
cultivate and strengthen business confidence and business 
prosperity. But it does rest with the National Government 
to enforce the law, and if the enforcement of the law is not 
consistent with the present method of carrying on business, 
then it does not speak well for the present methods of con- 
ducting business, and they must be changed to conform to the 
law. There was no promise on the part of the Republican 
party to change the anti-trust law except to strengthen it, 
or to authorize monopoly and a suppression of competition 
and the control of prices, and those who look forward to 
such a change can not now visit the responsibility for their 
mistake on innocent persons. Of course the Government 
at Washington can be counted on to enforce the law in the 
way best calculated to prevent a destruction of public 
confidence in business, but that it must enforce the law 
goes without saying. 

I am glad to be present at this meeting of the Republican 
Club of New York and here meet your distinguished 
Governor, whose name is such a power before the people of 
this State and of the country, that to lose him as a candidate 
for Governor by his voluntary withdrawal is to lose the 
strongest asset that the Republican party has in the State 
to enable it to win at the next election. 

I am glad to be here at the meeting of the Republican Club 
on Lincoln's birthday, because my knowledge and informa- 
tion with respect to the club is that it stands for stalwart 
Republicanism, believes in party organization and party 
discipline, but insists on the highest ideals and methods 
in formulating the policies of the party and carrying them 
out. 



LXXI 

ADDRESS AT THE BANQUET OF THE BOARD OF 
TRADE, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 

(FEBRUARY 23, 1910) 

Gentlemen of the Board of Trade of the ( 'it;/ of Newark: 

IT IS an opportunity to be able to speak to the business 
men of New Jersey, of whom this is a most repre- 
sentative gathering. The proximity of New Jersey to 
New York, and the fact that from the West one can hardly 
get to New York without passing through New Jersey, 
make one forget at times the importance of Newark and of 
all the rest of the hive of industry that spreads west from the 
Hudson River far into and across this prosperous Stale. 
It comes to a stranger with considerable surprise to find a 
city of 3.50,000, nine miles west of Jersey City, so extended in 
its manufacturing industries, so solid in its invested capital. 

When I accepted the invitation to come here, I learned 
that I was to have the pleasure of being a fellow-guest with 
my friend, Senator Lodge, and that he was to take up the 
question of high prices, a question which has occupied the 
attention of all the people and has invited the investigation 
into its causes of the Congress of the United States and some 
of the State legislatures. 

For my part of the evening, I should like to direct your 
attention to a more prosy subject, to the question of gov- 
ernment expenses and government revenues, and the possible 
economies, and what expenditures are essential at whatever 
burden of taxation. 

In the first place, it should be said that we have been so 
far from exhausting the resources of national taxation, and 
Federal revenues have been collected so easily and in such an 

587 



588 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

amount, that we have failed in the past to adopt a budget 
system which is practiced in every other civilized country. 
By a budget system I mean a reference of proposed expen- 
ditures and receipts to some one authority or tribunal, which, 
after determining what the revenues are to be, must also 
determine what the expenditures can be, and make a budget 
without a deficit. 

In our legislative body, which provides the revenue and 
authorizes the expenditures, time was when the Committee 
on Ways and Means, on the one hand, determined the 
revenues of the Government, or provided the laws for raising 
them, and, on the other hand, determined the appropri- 
ations and measured the expenditures. But for many years 
in our Congress these functions have been divided. The 
revenues are provided by the Ways and Means Committee 
of the House and the Finance Committee of the Senate, 
and submitted to their respective Houses, while the appro- 
priations are made by the appropriation committees of the 
House and the Senate, and in too many instances without 
apparent reference to the revenues which are to be available 
to meet the appropriations. 

It has so happened that in many years of the past, the 
revenues have increased more rapidly than the expenditures, 
and there has been a surplus. During the life of the Dingley 
Bill, which carried us from 1896 to 1908, the appropriations 
exceeded the expenditures by about $250,000,000; but the 
surplus took place in the earlier years, so that in 1908 we had 
a deficit, and in 1909 we had a deficit. The pinching effect 
of the falling off of the revenues and the continuance of the 
expenditures at the same rate attracted the attention of 
Congress, so that now a preliminary duty is thrown upon the 
Secretary of the Treasury to make a budget; that is, by law 
he is required to receive all the estimates of all the Depart- 
ments, himself to make an estimate of the probable revenues, 
and if his calculations show a deficit, to recommend legis- 
lation for additional taxation or the raising of money by bonds 
sufficient to meet it. 



AND STATE PAPERS 



589 



The calculation of the Secretary of the Treasury for the 
present year showed that the deficit was likely to be 
$34,000,000 in respect to ordinary receipts and expendi- 
tures. I am glad to say that the operation of the new tariff 
bill has been so much more productive of income thai this 
deficit for the current year is likely to be considerably reduced. 
In addition, however, to the ordinary deficit, we have to 
add the Panama Canal expenditures for immediate provision 
$38,000,000; or what was estimated to be a total deficit 
of $72,000,000 is now reduced considerably by the better 
rates under the present tariff bill. 

By meeting the expenditures on the Panama Canal with 
the proceeds of bond issues, we have enough cash in the 
Treasury to meet the deficit in our ordinary expenses for 
the current year, and if we meet the expenditures on the 
Panama Canal for the following year, we shall have a surplus 
of $35,000,000; or if the revenue-producing capacity of the 
new tariff keeps up to its present indications, this surplus 
may be increased to $50,000,000. On the other hand, if 
the Congress proposes to add to the expenditures of the 
Government over those estimated for, for new enterprises 
in the Rivers and Harbors Bill, and for the construction 
of Federal buildings under a building act, it will be very 
easy to consume or exceed the entire surplus. 

Every one must admit the wisdom of providing for the 
payment of the canal expenditure by bonds. The original 
act made provision for the issuing of bonds, and while the 
amount therein estimated was far short of the actual cost, 
the policy of the Government in supplying funds for the 
enterprise by bonds was sufficiently declared. This is a work 
of a permanent character for the millions who come after 
us, and it seems only fair that that which we provide in such 
a generous measure for posterity should be paid for, in part 
at least, by posterity. 

Not only is the application of such a principle jiisl and 
right in the case of an enterprise like the Panama ('anal. 
but it seems to me wise and appropriate to adopt it with 



590 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

reference to other projects which commend themselves to 
Congress, and the economical completion of which requires 
the issuing of bonds. I refer to those definite projects that 
have been agreed upon in respect to the improvement of 
our inland waterways. I would not begin the expenditure 
of any money on any project the wisdom of which had not 
been fully vindicated by experts and the cost of which had 
not been fully ascertained by the most experienced engineers; 
but having determined to put through the improvement, 
it ought not to be done by fits and starts, but it ought to be 
done as one job, and provision for its completion ought to 
be made by the issuing of bonds, unless the current revenues 
afford a sufficient amount to complete it within a reasonable 
time. 

This statement has peculiar application to the River and 
Harbor Bill, which now has passed the House. There the 
Ohio River improvement, to cost $63,000,000, is entered 
upon, and an appropriation made for its continuing. The 
same thing is true of the improvement of the Mississippi 
from St. Paul to St. Louis, and the same river from St. Louis 
to Cairo; and of the Missouri River from Kansas City to 
St. Louis. These projects seem to be warranted by the 
traffic in sight. 

While I am dealing with the Panama Canal, however, 
I ought to refer to the discrepancy between the estimated 
cost of the enterprise and the actual cost as we are now able 
to fix it with very considerable accuracy within four or five 
years of its completion. The estimated cost of the engineer- 
ing and construction of the canal was $139,700,000. Its 
actual cost for engineering and construction will be 
$297,000,000, an increase of about $157,300,000. This 
increase is to be explained first by the very great appreciation 
in the cost of labor and material between the time when 
the estimate was made in 1900 and the time when the work 
was done between 1904 and 1909. Second, by the fact 
that the canal has been enlarged substantially beyond the 
original dimensions estimated for. You know that the 



AND STATE PAPERS ,:»i 

great work of excavation in the canal is called the Culebra 
Cut. This is where the backbone of the continent, reduced 
to its lowest height, is cut through in order to permit the 
flowing of the canal; and through live miles of that cut, 
which altogether is about nine miles long, for purposes of 
economy the original plan and estimate made the bottom 
of the canal in the rock 200 feet wide. This would not 
enable two of the largest steamers to pass each other in the 
canal with any degree of safety, and would require that one 
of them should tie up to the bank while the other went by. 
In order to avoid this delay in that part of the canal il has 
been thought wise to increase the bottom width from 200 to 
300 feet in a place and in material that of course make the 
change most expensive. So, too, in order thai the canal may 
be adapted to the largest size of steamers possible, the dimen- 
sions of the six locks have been increased from 900 feet, 
usable length, by 90 feet width, to 1,000 feet, usable length, 
and 110 feet width. This was done at the instance of the 
Navy Department, on the ground that they could look 
forward in the future and see vessels of a beam exceeding 
100 feet. 

It has also been found necessary to change the character of 
the canal on the Pacific side from a lake with a dam and 
locks on the shore of the Bay of Panama to a sea level canal 
running four miles inland, so as to remove the locks four 
miles inland and beyond the possible reach of the guns of 
an enemy in Panama Bay. These two changes also have 
added very considerably to the cost. 

Again it has been found wise to enlarge the canal into a 
lake or basin at the foot of the Gatun locks, and with other 
variations in the plans which experience in the construction 
has demonstrated the necessity for, the more than doubling 
of the cost of construction and engineering has been made 
necessary. In addition to this, the cost of sanitation and 
government, without which the canal could not have been 
built, will be about $73,000,000, and will carry the entire 
cost of the canal to $373,000,000. 



592 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

To return to the state of finances, I repeat that the-surplus 
for the year ending June 30, 1911, for which we are now 
making provision in this Congress by appropriation, will be 
about $35,000,000, if the estimates made by the Depart- 
ments as transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to 
Congress are not exceeded, and if the revenue from the 
tariff bill equals that which the Secretary of the Treasury 
has estimated it as likely to be. This surplus is also upon 
the supposition that the $38,000,000 necessary annually 
in the construction of the Panama Canal will be met by 
bonds. 

In view of the threatened shortage for the year ending 
June 30, 1911, I directed the heads of Departments in 
making their estimates to cut them to the quick and to avail 
themselves of every possible economy and reduction. The 
result was that the total of the estimates forwarded by the 
Secretary of the Treasury was $42,818,000 less than the 
total of the appropriations for the previous year, ending 
June 30, 1910. 

A river and harbor bill has now been introduced and 
has passed the House, which appropriates nearly $40,000,000. 
This is a very considerable increase over the amount esti- 
mated for by the Secretary of the Treasury. If, in addition 
to this, a building bill passes Congress, appropriating 
$15,000,000 or $20,000,000 for the coming fiscal year, there 
may still be a deficit unless the receipts from the tariff bill 
and the corporation tax exceed what was originally estimated 
from them. I am bound to say that the results of the tariff 
bill thus far indicate a considerable increase over the esti- 
mate of the Secretary. 

Now, I would like for a moment to go into the question of 
what it was that we cut down in our estimates for the coming 
year in the departments. 

The reduction in the estimate of the War Department 
below the appropriations of last year amounted to 
$10,000,000. The reduction in the estimate of the Navy 
Department for the expenses of the year ending June 30, 



AND STATE PAPERS 

1911, also amounted to $10,000,000. The reduction in 
the Interior Department of estimated expenses for 191] 
below the appropriations for 1910 amounted to $8,000,000. 
The reduction in the Treasury and in the Post-Office Depart- 
ment made up the balance of the $42,000,000. 

Speaking with reference to the Army and the Navy, il 
should be said that the reductions were not in wiial m.n be 
called the permanent expenses of the Departments, bul were 
rather in cutting down proposed improvements, which if 
the plans of the Departments are properly carried oui 
must be some time met. In other words, il is a postpone- 
ment only of expenditures that are necessarj until the 
income shall be sufficient to meet them. 

Let us take the War Department. There was a very 
considerable cut in the expenditures needed to complete 
with modern appliances the coast defences on the Pacific 
and Atlantic seaboard. There is needed at the month of 
Chesapeake Bay, between Cape Henry and Cape Charles, 
an artificial island upon the so-called middle ground, which 
shall command the entrance to Chesapeake Hay. Chesa- 
peake Bay is the most important body of water from a 
strategic naval standpoint on the whole Atlantic coast, and 
must be defended. 

So, too, we have now determined that the great naval base 
of the Pacific for us is to be Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu. 
For years there was discussion as to whether we oughl to 
make the naval base at Subig Bay or at Cavite, in Manila 
Bay, in the Philippines. By unanimous consent of naval 
and military authorities, it is now concluded thai we do not 
need a naval base in the Philippines at all: that we ought 
to make Corregidor Island, at the mouth of Manila Bay, 
impregnable, establish a naval supply station in Subig Kay. 
but rely upon the Sandwich Islands as our base. This 
will all involve a heavy expenditure at Honolulu, bul for tin- 
present the amount proposed is comparatively small. 

In the naval expenditures we have retained a provision for 
two battleships of the large 2.5,000 ton capacity, and we hi 



594 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

done this on the ground that until the Panama Canal is com- 
pleted we ought to go on and add to our naval strength. 
The Panama Canal will certainly be completed in 1915, 
and if we have two battleships a year until that time, the 
opening of the canal will so double the efficacy of our Navy 
for the protection of our Pacific and Atlantic coasts that we 
can then abate and reduce our expenditures in new con- 
struction. 

The reductions in the Treasury Department were I think 
more of them in the administration than in the expenditures 
for improvements, and this was also the case in the Post- 
Office Department. 

The reduction in the Interior Department was $5,000,000 
of it due to a reduction of the amount of pensions to be 
paid out, and we may reasonably expect that as the years now 
go on this amount will gradually be reduced. 

On the other hand, there are certain of our Departments, 
to wit, the Agricultural Department, with its Forestry 
Bureau, the War Department in so far as it is a construc- 
tive department for the improvement of rivers, the Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labor, including as it ought, it 
seems to me, a Bureau of Health, which, as the opportunities 
for bettering the condition of the people by governmental 
investigation increase, grow in importance and in cost; 
and we ought not to expect a reduction either in the expenses 
growing out of a conservation of our resources. 

For some time it has been said that we have "billion 
dollar" Congresses. The statement in itself is an unjust 
one, because it is generally construed to mean that the 
total expense of the Departments to be paid out of taxa- 
tion amounts to a billion dollars a year. This is quite an 
error, for the reason that in making up the billion dollars, 
the expenses for the Post-Office Department are always 
included, whereas the expenses of the Post-Office Depart- 
ment are not paid for out of the proceeds of taxes. They 
are paid for out of the receipts of that Department from 
the sale of stamps, with the exception of $17,500,000, which 



AND STATE PAPERS 

was the excess of the cost of the Post Office Departmenl 
last year over its receipts. This, therefore, reduces the cosl 
of the Government by taxation each year to something like 
$750,000,000. 

It is now proposed to appoint a Congressional commission 
to look into the question of a general reorganization of the 
Departments of the Government, with a view to reducing 
the expense of administering the Government. I think ? 
have already made clear the distinction between those 
expenditures of the Government that go into permanenl 
improvements and that may be reduced one year and musl 
be increased another, and the actual routine cosl of admin- 
istration. A reduction in the cost of proposed improvements 
is not an elimination of them, but merely a postponement 
of them; whereas a reduction in the cost of administration 
would be a permanent economy that, of course, on thai 
account, becomes most important. 

It has been stated on the floor of the Senate thai il will 
be possible by this commission to reduce the cosl of admin- 
istering the government $100,000,000 a year, and thai if 
a free hand were given to a business man the reduction in 
the expense of administration might be doubled or trebled, 
I am unable to confirm these statements as to exacl amount, 
but I am very sure that a conservative, prudent, and fearless 
commission could make a most material reduction in the 
cost of administering the government. They will find 
opposition in Congress to every change recommended, 
because there is no branch or bureau so humble that if can nol 
secure its adherents and defenders within the legislative 
halls. But, if by the totals that it shows this commission 
shall justify its existence, it is probable thai if can secure a 
majority sufficient to carry through its proposed reforms. 
This Government has been constructed not all at one time, 
but bureau has been added to bureau, and departmenl 
to department, and it has been impossible to avoid dupli- 
cation and expensive methods. In creating a new bureau. 
there was no time to go back and reform the Governmenl 



596 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES 

with reference to the adjustment of that bureau to its proper 
place or to consider the work of the entire Government with 
reference to it. This proposed commission, as I under- 
stand it, is to take up the bureaus of all the Departments, 
to see whether they may not often be consolidated, and also 
to lay down such rules governing the civil service as will 
secure the utmost efficiency from each civil servant or each 
unit of labor. It is undoubtedly true to-day that we have 
a great many more persons employed in the government 
than we would need, if every person in the government 
rendered to the government a service of a high degree of 
efficiency. This commission will have to take up the ques- 
tion, which has troubled great industrial corporations and 
great railroads, as to the method of disposing of super- 
annuated servants. Our military pensions have reached 
so large an annual sum, to wit $150,000,000, that we have 
avoided the suggestion of civil pensions, but I am convinced 
that some method must be adopted by which superannuated 
civil servants may be retired on an income sufficient to sup- 
port them, and that such a provision will ultimately bring 
about great economy in the administration. 

It has been reported by the Postmaster- General that we 
are carrying in the Post-Office Department the weekly 
periodicals and magazines at a loss to that department of 
upward of $60,000,000, and that the business of the Govern- 
ment in the Post-Office Department is now run at a general 
loss of $17,500,000. The committees of Congress are investi- 
gating the correctness of this view. The owners of magazines 
dispute the correctness of the figures. There ought to be 
some way certainly of determining this fact, and if it is a 
fact it calls for a reform, and an increase in the postage 
of a sufficient amount at least to take away the deficit in the 
Post-Office Department. Should the two postal committees 
not be able to reach a conclusion satisfactory to them upon 
this question, the whole matter may well be left to the com- 
mission to consider. It will be essential for this commission 
to employ expert men who have had to do with the organiza- 



AND STATE PAPERS 597 

tion of great businesses and who are familiar with the most 
modern methods of economy. The truth is thai the success 
of modern business has been the adoption of successful 
economies, and the time has come for us to make an effort 
at least to introduce something of these economics into an 
administration of the greatest business that we have in I his 
country, the business of our Federal Government. 

I am quite aware that things done by the Governmenl 
are done under conditions so different from those of a busi- 
ness concern that there are certain expenditures necessary, 
in view of the fact that the government business is done for 
the benefit of all the people, and that therefore all the people 
are entitled to know how it is done, and a number of them 
are entitled to be selected in a fair way to share in its doing. 
But in spite of the added expenditure of administration 
incident to the requirements of popular government, every 
one familiar with government methods now in vogue must 
recognize the possibility of reforms leading to great economy, 
if the Congress shall have the courage to adopt plans which 
may be recommended by this commission after a full exam 
ination by business experts. 

I have already occupied your time too much, and I per- 
haps have not made this statment very informing or inter- 
esting, but I can not close without congratulating you and 
myself on the prospect that the present tariff bill offers 
such an increased income as to make deficits under any 
condition unnecessary. Of course if there were to be a 
halt in our prosperity and a panic, the reduction in imports 
might be so substantial as to lead to deficits again. Lei 
us hope, however, that the prosperity of our country is 
founded on such a substantial basis that no flurry in the 
stock market and no other temporary cause may prevent 
the continuance of good business on a substantial basis. 

THE END 



INDEX 



Abuses, business, 3. Anti-trust law, 240, 479, 524. 

reform of, 3. aggregation of capital not viola- 
Acceptance, speech of, 3. tion of, 15. 
Adams, Judge, 161. amendment of, 12, 54, 187, 313. 
Administration of justice, improve- construction of, 12. 

ment of, 199. enforcement of, 315, 427. 

Administration, the chief function prosecutions under, 5. 

of, 6. President Roosevelt's amend- 

constructive work of, 7. ment of, 11. 

Africa, development of, 451. President Roosevelt's prosecu- 

missionary work in, 436. tion under, 4. 

Agriculture, Department of, 484. violations under, 44, 526. 

reorganization of, 7. Appomattox, surrender at, 98. 

Alaska, coal of, 278, 295. Argentine Republic, trade with, 455. 

development of, 283. Arid lands, reclamation of, 43, 270. 

disposition of, 292. 271, 318, 332, 426, 543. 

future of, 285. Arizona, statehood for, 483, 578. 

government of, 282, 283, 293, 294, Armstrong, General, 445. 

327, 483. Army, the, 34, 57. 

history of, 282, 293. changes in, 473. 

territorial legislature for, 295. engineers, commendation of, 343, 

wealth of, 282. 495- 

Alaska - Yukon - Pacific Exposition, Democratic Party's policy, re, 34. 

address at, 281. President McKinley's policy, re, 

Aldrich, Senator, 186. 34- 

Algiers, 505. of the Potomac, 98. 

Aliens, protection of, 60. regular, 122. 

Alsop & Co., claim of, 458. reorganization and improvement 

Amendments to Constitution, thi.- of, 43. 

teenth, fourteenth and fifteenth, 64. President Roosevelt s policy, re, 

American Federation of Labor, 143, 34- 

147, 160, 578. officers, retirement of, 473. 

American Republics, International Arthur case, 1 51, 152. 

Bureau of. 450. Asiatic immigration, 35, 59. 

American Sugar Refining Co., Republican platform s policy, re, 

469. 35* 

Anarchy, prevention of by courts, Athens, Ohio, speech at, 161. 

2_ Atlanta, University, 114. 

Ansel, Governor, 418. Atlantic Deeper Waterways Conven- 

Anthracite Coal Commission, 150. tion, Norfolk, address at, 44c 

599 



600 



INDEX 



Auditorium, Richmond, Va., ad- 
dress at, 424. 
Augusta, Ga., address at, 418. 

Bacon, Senator, 403. 

Ballinger, Secretary, 280. 

Bank deposits, guarantee of, 30, 50. 

Banking laws, amendment of, 60. 

Banking system, 185, 187. 
amendment of, 208. 

Bankruptcy, 550, 553. 

Barra, Ignacio de la, 360. 

Barry, Maj. Gen., 164. 

Bartlett, Representative, 403. 

Bates, Lindon, 137, 139. 

Beecher, Mr., 264. 

Bilibid prison, 104. 

Birmingham, Ala., address at, 399. 
growth of, 400. 

Birney, General, 98. 

Blockade, 449. 

Board of Trade and Chamber of 
Commerce, Washington, ad- 
dress at, 80. 

Board of Trade banquet, Newark, 
N. J., address at, 587. 

Boll- Weevil, 380. 

Bolivia, boundary dispute, settle- 
ment of, 454. 

Bonds and stocks, over issue of, 4. 
President Roosevelt's policy, re, 

5- 

Boston, Mass., address at, 182. 

Boxer trouble, 437. 

Boycotts, secondary, 21, 68, 144, 

148, 194,242,314. 
Brewer, Justice, 158. 
Bricklayers' Union, 148. 
Bright, John, 263. 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engin- 
eers, 151. 
Brown, Governor, 418. 
Brussels, world's fair at, 450. 
Bryan, Mr., bank deposit policy of, 
50. 
charges Republican Party con- 
trolled by corporations, 51. 
injunctions in labor disputes, 147. 
policies of, 50. 
policies of, destructive, 13. 



Bryan, prosperity delayed by his 
election, 17. 
refers to Mr. Taft as " father " of 

injunctions, 160. 
successor of Mr. Roosevelt, 47. 
tariff policy of, 51. 
Budget system, 588. 
Buenos Aires, 455. 
Bunau-Varilla, 137, 139. 
Burbank, General, 121. 
Burnham, Mr., 85. 
Butt, Captain Archibald W., 360. 
362, 404. 

Campaign funds, necessary, 51. 

Campaign, issues of, 43. 

Campbell, Governor, 360. 

Canadian International boundary, 
448. 

Canal Zone, control of, 40. 

Cannon, Speaker, 144, 394. 

Capital, advantage of combination 
of, 14. 
investment of in foreign coun- 
tries, 455. 

Caraboa, the, 566. 

Military Order of the, Washington, 
address to, 559. 

Carnegie, Mr., ill. 

Carriers, duties of, 518. 

Casey vs. Typographical Union, 1 59. 

Catholic Summer School of Amer- 
ica, address at, 178. 

Cavite, 593. 

Central American wars, 43. 

Central Bank of issue, 186. 

Centralization, 550. 

Chaffee, General, 342. 

Chamber of Commerce, Birming- 
ham, address at, 3 99. 
Los Angeles, address at, 341. 

Champlain, 179, 181. 

Charleston, S. C., address at, 409. 

Charlotte, N. C, address at, 101. 

Chesapeake Bay, fortification of, 

443>473>593- 
Child labor, 552. 

law for District of Columbia, 67. 
Chicago, 111., address at, 191. 
Chile, 458. 



INDEX 



GUI 



China, 460. 

development of, 286, 297, 328, 

436. 
indemnity fund of, 461. 
missionary work in, 505. 
railroad loan to, 460. 
students of, sent to American 
schools, 461. 
Church and State, separation of, 

3 Z 3» 3 6 7, 439- 

Cincinnati, Ohio, address at, 3. 
Cincinnati, Society of the, 171. 
Civil law, delays in, 476. 

necessity for reform of, 195. 
Civil pensions, establishment of, 468. 
Civil procedure, improvement of, 

428. 
Civil Service Commission, 487. 
Civil War, 170. 
Cleveland, President, address on, 

7'- 
Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling 

R. R., 157. 
Cliff Haven, N. Y., address at, 178. 
Coal, Alaskan, 295. 
case, 157. 

lands, disposition of, 270, 278. 
Coast defenses, 473. 
Cceur d'Alene, strike troubles, 159. 
Colton, Col. Geo. R., 78. 
Columbia, S. C, address at, 415. 
Columbus, Miss., address at, 396. 
Commerce Court, 234. 
Commerce and Labor, Dept. of, 485. 
corporations, registrations under, 

1 1. 
reorganization of, 7, 54. 
supervision of certain industrial 
corporations, 6. 
Comparative negligence theory, 20. 
Competition, suppression of, 532. 
Conaty, Bishop, 349. 
Congo, independent State of, 451. 
Congresses, billion dollar, 594. 
Conservation of national resources, 
36, 57, 188, 243, 270, 318, 330, 
372, 381, 385, 419, 4 2 6, 484* 

537, 553, 579- 
administration's attitude toward, 

279. 



Constitution, Federal, 556. 
amendment of, 167. 
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth 

amendments of, 105. 
guaranties under, 103, 109. 
fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 
ments of, 34. 
Consular service, improvi 1 

463. 
Contempt cases, 148, 163. 
Contraband, 449. 

Contributions, campaign, publicity 
of, 36. 
political, publicity of, 488. 
Contributory negligence rule, aboli- 
tion of, 67. 
Court of Commerce, establishment 

of, 515. 
Courts, Federal, Democratic plat- 
form's attack on, 25. 
duties of, 146. 
full power of necessary to avoid 

anarchy, 27. 
power of, 145. 
upholding of, 578. 
State, upholding of, 578. 
Corporations, industrial, classifica- 
tion of, 6. 
Federal incorporation of, 533. 
objections toFederal incorporation 

of, 535- 

prosecution of, 530. 
interstate commerce, Federal con- 
trol of, 11. 
interstate commerce, Democratic 

platform's attitude on, 11. 
interstate commerce, classification 

of, 11. 
legislation for, 45. 
regulations of, 532. 
violation of law by, 311. 
Corporation tax, 246, 249, 253, 304, 

305, 307. 
Corpus Christi,Texas, address at, 371. 
Corregidor Island, 593. 

coast defenses at, 474. 
Cosio, Gen. Manuel Gonzales, 360. 
Creel, Governor, 360. 
Criminal law, delays in, 476. 
necessity for reform of, 195. 



602 



INDEX 



Criminal procedure, improvement of 
428. 

reform of, 198. 
Cromer, Governor, 399. 
Crowder, Colonel, 164. 
Cuba, 30, 433, 457. 

annexation of, 560. 

re-establishment of government of, 

43- 
Cuban pacification, army of, 164. 

war, 433. 
Culberson, Senator, 379. 
Currency system, 27, 60. 

Republican platform's policy, re, 
28. 
Cushing, General, 122. 
Cushman, Representative, 290. 
Customs, frauds in collection of, 469. 

Dallas, Texas, address at, 379. 
Davis, Mr., 129. 
Debs's boycott, 77, 154, 158. 
Declaration of London, 449. 
Deficit, government, 39, 166, 227, 
246, 465, 580, 588. 

amount of, 69. 

meeting of, 56, 303. 
DeLesseps, 124. 
Democratic Party, charges deficit, 

39- 

charges increase of offices and ex- 
penditures, 38. 

defeat of in 1896, 25. 

free coinage of silver policy of, 
46. 

pension policy of, 39. 

Philippine policy of, 49. 
Democratic platform, attack on 
power of courts, 25. 

bank deposit policy of, 29. 

business affected by, 6. 

compulsory sale of products at 
fixed prices, 13. 

destructive policy of, 16. 

election of senators by the people, 

37- 
income tax policy of, 37. 
injunction policy of, 22, 25, 148. 
interstate corporation policy of, 



Democratic platform, limits corpora- 
tions to ownership of 50 per 
cent, of plant and product, 12. 

pensions for veterans of Civil and 
Spanish Wars, 33. 

tariff policy of, 18. 
Democrats, independent, 41. 
Deneen, Governor, 501. 
Denver, Col., address at, 245. 
Departments, Government, reor- 
ganization of, 580, 595. 
Dependencies, our, 120. 

Republican Party's policy, re, 30. 
Des Moines, Iowa, address at, 231. 
Diaz, Gen. Felix, 363. 

Lieut. -Col. Porfirio, Jr., 363. 

President, interview with, 360, 
456. 
Diaz, toast of, 364. 
Dickens, Charles, 264. 
Dickinson, Secretary J. M., 360, 

367. 
Dingley, Tariff, 44, 209, 588. 

cotton schedule of, 217. 

crockery schedule of, 218. 

enactment of, 55. 

passage of, 18. 

print paper, 219. 

schedules of, 214. 
District of Columbia, franchise in, 83 

government of, 81. 

jail of, 479. 

model child labor law, for 67. 

Eight hour law, passage of, 19. 
Eliot, Dr., 444. 

Emancipation Proclamation, 488. 
Emery Co., claim of, 458. 
Employee and employer, difference 

between, 20. 
Employees, government, classifica- 
tion of, 468. 
Employers' liability act, 66. 
passage of, 1 9. 

right to bring suit under any place, 
524. 
England, income tax in, 252. 
Erasmus, 174. 

Erie Railroad, stock controversy of, 
24. 



INDEX 603 

Escandon, Col. Pablos, 360. Fresno, California, address at, 535. 

Excise tax, 168, 227, 250. Friars, the, 435. 

Executive power, limitation of, 201. Frissell, Dr., 444. 

Exhibition, international agricul- Full dinner pail, <;o. 

tural, 455. Fur Seals in North Pacific, 449. 
Expenditures, governmental, 39, 

465, 587. Galveston, harbor of, 376. 

Extra session, calling of, 55. Garfield, President, 33. 

Georgia-Carolinafair,ddilrr - at,4l8. 

Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, ad- Gettysburg, address at, 1 11. 

dress at, 325. battle of, 129. 

Falconio, Monsignor, 439. Gibbons, Cardinal, 17S, 439. 

Farmer, the, and Republican Party, Gift chapel, San Antonio, dedii a- 

19. tion of, 366. 

Far East, 460. Glenwood Mission Inn, Cal., a*l 
Federal judiciary, act of 1789, 144. at, 349. 

Fee system, abolition of, 199. Goethals, Colonel, 63, 130, 1-,;. 

Fellow servant rule, abolition of, 19, Gomez, General, 165. 

67. Gompers, Mr., 143, 160, 162, 578. 

Filipinos, the, 435. Gordon, General, 98. 

Fisheries on North Atlantic coast, Gorman- Wilson Tariff Bill, 44, 46, 

447. 48- 

Fish, Frederick P., 185. President Cleveland refuses to 

Fisk University, 114. sign, 74. 

Fitch, Rev. James, 173. Government employees, compensa- 
Flint, Senator, 342. tion of, for injuries rec 

Foraker Act, Porto Rico, 88, 95. 20, 67. 

amendment of, 90, 95. Government expenditures, 465. 

Foreign countries, investment of Governors, conference of, at White 

American capital in, 455. House, address to, 555. 

Foreign policy of government, 40. Grand Army of the Republic, 170. 

Foreign trade, encouragement of, 61. Granger, Mr., 137, 139. 

Forests, Government, 373, 379, 386. Grant, President, 33, 97, 364, 583. 

destruction by fire annually, 271. Greenbackism, 50. 

extent of, 270, 331, 545. Gregg, General, 98. 

preservation of, 270. Green fly, 380. 

regulation of, 271. Guadaloupe, Hidalgo, treaty of, 282. 

Forest lands, private ownership of, Guaranties of Constitution, 103, 109. 

_.p Guaranty of bank deposits, 28, 30. 

Forest service, investigation of, 548. Gunnison tunnel, opening of, 271. 
Fortifications, partially completed, 58 

Fort Stedman, battle of, 98. Habeas Corpus, writ of, 104. 

Free coinage of silver, repeal of, 75. Hadley, Governor, 385. 

Freedman's Savings and Trust Co., Hague tribunal, 58, 447- 

00 usefulness of, 40. 

Freeman, Mr., 129. Hammond, John Hays, 360. 

Frees, Captain, 343- Hampton Institute, .13. 
Free trade, with Porto Rico, 93. address at, 444. 

with Philippines, 61, 63, 227. 286, Hancock, General, 98. 
296, 306, 327. Harrison, President, 33. 



604 



INDEX 



Harrison, President, maintained stan- 
dard of Federal judiciary 108. 
Hartranft, General, 98. 
Hartzell, Bishop, 509. 
Hassayampa water, 356. 
Hayes, President, 33. 
Hazen, Mr., 1.29. 
Health Bureau, 36, 420, 429, 486, 

594- 

Hemp, Manila, 32. 

Hepburn Bill, 11, 233, 311, 514. 

High prices, cause of, 223, 489, 585. 

Hitchcock, Postmaster-General 
Frank H., 360. 

Homogeneity of American people, 
359, 382, 401, 422, 426. 

Hook worm, 93. 

Homestead act, 274. 

Hornets' nest, 106. 

Howard University, Washington, ad- 
dress at, in. 

Howland, Judge, 399. 

Hughes, Governor, 37, 178. 

Humphreys, General, 98. 

Hunt, General, 122. 

Immigration, Asiatic, 35. 
Import, duties 56. 
Inaugural address, 53. 
Income of Government, 39. 

tax, 37, 166, 247, 249, 252, 254, 
304 

tax case, 142. 
Independent, article in the, 43. 
Indian, education of, 445. 
Industrial organizations, Federal in- 
corporation of, 513. 
Inheritance tax, graduated, 56, 166, 

247, 257, 303. 
Injunctions, 49, 145, 477. 

Democratic platform's policy, re, 
22. 

"father" of, 159. 

in industrial disputes, 67. 

labor, 23, 67, 143, 146, 232. 

legislation for, 192. 

notice and hearing before issue of, 

2 3- 
remedy of, 22. 
Republican Party's policy, re, 24. 



Interior Department, 483. 
investigation of, 548. 
reduction in estimates of, 593. 
International Fisheries Commission, 

448. 
International policy, our, 58. 
International prize court, 449. 
Interstate Commerce Commission, 
change in jurisdiction of, 7. 
enlargement of powers of, 3 1 1. 
power of, to investigate increase 

in rates, 520. 
rates fixed by, 233. 
reorganization of, 54. 
railway traffic agreements ap- 
proved by, 7. 
should ascertain physical valua- 
tion of railways, 10. 
should be relieved of its jurisdic- 
tion as an executive directing 
body, 6. 
should hear complaints against 
unjust claims of merchants, 

2 35- 

Interstate Commerce corporations, 
Federal control of, 11. 

Interstate Commerce Law, amend- 
ment of, 54, 187, 233, 237, 238, 
428, 479, 513, 522. 
Republican platform recommends 
its amendment, 521. 

Interstate trade, Federal protection 
of, 582. 

Inventors, American, 451. 

Irrigated lands, payment for, 274. 

Irrigation, necessity of, 273, 332, 380. 

Jackson, Andrew, 142. 
Jackson, Stonewall, 424. 
Jackson, Mrs. Stonewall, 101. 
Japan, commercial strides of, 328. 

control of Oriental trade by, 297. 

merchant marine of, 288. 

relations with, 462. 

revision of treaty with, 462. 

visit of delegation from, 462. 
Johnson, Governor, 188. 
Johnston, Senator, 399. 
Judicial decisions as an issue in 
politics, article on, 142. 



INDEX 605 

Judiciary, Federal, strongest bul- Letters of exchange, uniform legi 

wark we have, 108. lation for, 450. 

Judicial system, attack on, 27. Liberia, 452, 508. 

procedure, delays in, 554. Light-house Board, 485. 

Jury system, 196. Lincoln, President, 201, 568. 

trial, effect of, 26. Litigation, reducing cost of, 198. 

Justice, Department of, 476. Littlefield, Mr., 144. 

reorganization of, 7, 54. Lobnitz, method of excavation, 140. 

Lodge, Senator, 587. 

Kipling, 566. Lord, Dr. Benjamin, 175. 

Klopsch, Dr., 510. Los Angeles, Cal., address at, 341. 

Kuni, Prince, 462. harbor of, 342. 

Loyal Legion, 171. 
Labor, 232. 

address on, 161. Macon, Ga., address at, 403. 

affected by change from pro- Madeira, 505. 

tective to revenue tariff, 49. Magazines, postage for, 480, 596. 

injunctions, 49, 143, 232. Magellan, 179. 

legislation for, 66. Magoon, Governor, administration 

unions, must obey law, 315. of, 164, 

non-organized, 20. Mail matter, second class, 48. 

organization of, 232. Malins, Vice-Chancellor, 1 59. 

Republican Party's policy, on Manila Bay, 474. 

jo. Manufactures and Statistics, union 
rights of, 21, 156, 193. of bureaus of, 486. 
rights of, re, strikes, 21. Marine, foreign, development of, 41. 
union of, 20, 192. Merchant, 419. 
vote of, 191. mortgages and privileges, 450. 
what it cannot do, 21. Maritime law, International, con- 
Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterways ference on, 450. 

Committee, address to at Wash- Marriage and divorce, 553. 

ington, 501. Marshall, General, 496. 

Lamar, Justice, 263. Marshall, John, 550. 

Lands, Government agricultural, Mason, Major John, 173. 

2 _- McClure's Magazine, articles in, 124, 

classification of, 275, 540, I4 2 - 

timber, 271. McDonnell, Father, 439. 

Latin America, 454. McMahon, Dr., 178. 

Law's delay, 199. McKinley, Pres.dent, 33, 434, 5^- 

Lawyer, profession of, 407. Navy policy of, 34. 

Laymen's Missionary Movement, Republican admm.straUon under, 

address at Washington, 432. 43- 

Lee, General Robert E., 97. McVickar, Bishop, 4 44- , . 

memorial to, 430. Methodist Ep.scopal m.ss.ons ,n 

Legare, Representative, 41°. Afri "' . ad J reSS ° n ' 5 ° 3> n9 ,,, 

Legaspi, 179. Meade ' Ma J- Gen - Geo - C - 9 8 ' l2U 

Legislation, uniform state, 549, 55*- Meat inspection law, 5. 

I 'Enfant 87. enactment of, 43, 45- 

Lennon"M r ', IS - Mecklenburg Declaranon, address 

Leo XIII, 180. on > ,ox - 



606 INDEX 

Mehmed V, 453. Moral reform, brought on by Presi- 

Merchant marine, 287, 298, 329, 346. dent Roosevelt, 584. 

Merchandise, c assification of, 235. Mormon tabernacle, Salt Lake City, 

Merrimac, battle of, 442. address at, 258 

Merritt, General, 121. Moton, Major, 445. 
Messages to Congress 

Conservation of National re- National assembly in Philippines, 3 1 . 
sources, 537. National Civic Federation, address 
convening it in extra session, 69. before, 549. 
government of Cuba, 164. National repudiation, 76. 
interstate commerce and anti- National rivers and harbors con- 
trust law and Federal incorpora- gress, address to, 490. 
tion, 513. resources, conservation of, 36, 57, 
Porto Rican, affairs, 88. 188, 243, 318, 330, 372, 381, 
second session, 61st Congress, 385, 419, 426. 

447. conservation of, 484, 537, 553, 579. 

tariff revision for Philippines; 78. N aulahka, 566. 

tax on net income of corporations, Naval observatory, 475. 

166. Navy, the, 34, 442. 

Mexican war, regular army's service Democratic platform on, 34. 

in, 120. enlargement of, 38, 43. 

Micawber, 375. need of commensurate, 58. 

Miles, General, 77. reform in, 474. 

Militia, National, 57. officers, reorganization of, 474. 

Milwaukee, Wis., address at, 201. yards, reorganization of, 475. 

Mining, South Manchuria, 461. Negro freedom, semi-centennial of, 

Mischler, Wendell W., 360. 488. 

Missions, Chinese, 437. Negro race, appointment to office of, 

description of, 506. 66. 

foreign, 350, 434. education of, 34, 112, 445. 

Missionaries, 436. future of, 1 16. 

duties of, 507. leadership of, 113. 

Mississippi River, improvement of, progress of, 34, 64. 

393, 492, 501, 547, 580, 590. rights of, 34. 

trip down, 492. South's toleration for, 114. 

Missouri River, improvement of, 492 suffrage for, 65. 

580, 590. Neutral prizes, destruction of, 449. 

Molina, Olegario, 360. Newark, N. J., address at, 587. 

Monetary Commission, 60. New Bowery Mission, address at, 

system, 187, 428. 510. 

laws, amendment of, 60, 208. New England ancestry, 174, 189. 

situation, 185. New Mexico, statehood for, 483, 578. 

Monitor, battle of, 442. New Orleans, La., address at, 390. 

Monopoly, 525, 532. New York City, address on Presi- 

unlawful, 44. dent Cleveland, 71. 
Monroe doctrine, 57, 432, 456. address at Lincoln birthday ban- 
Monrovia, commission sent to, 451. quet of Republican Club, 568. 
Montague, Governor, 445. address at Diamond Jubilee of 
Montcalm, 430. Methodist Episcopal missions 
Moores & Co., 148. in Africa, 503. 



INDEX 






New York City, address at Now 

Bowery Mission, 510. 
Nicaragua, 458. 

route for canal, 1 24. 
Noble, Alfred, 125. 
Norfolk, Va., address at, 440. 
North and South, good feeling be- 
tween, 430. 
Norwich, Conn., address at, 173. 

Offices, governmental, Democratic 
Party charges increase of, 38. 

Ogden, Mr., 366, 444. 

Ohio River, improvement of, 393, 
498, 580, 590. 
introduction of dams in, 547. 
maintaining depth of, 492. 

Ohio Valley Improvement Associa- 
tion, address to, 498. 

Oil lands, disposition of, 270, 278. 

Oklahoma, constitution of, 26, 358. 

Olongopo, 474. 

Open door, 59, 460, 564. 

Opium conference, 461. 

Orchestra Hall speech, Chicago, 191. 

Ordinance of 1787, 282. 

Oriental manners, 259. 

trade, control of by Japan, 297. 

Ostriches, industry in, 354. 

Otis, General, 104, 341. 

Overcapitalization of railways, 9. 

Pacific, future of world's business on, 
297, 328. 

shipping trade on, 41. 

coast, artillery force for, 326. 
Panama Canal, 124, 564. 

board of engineers for, 129. 

bond issue to pay for, 57, 589. 

Chagres River, 125, 135, 138. 

completion of, 43, 286, 328, 345. 

construction of, 38. 

cost of, 132, 138, 466. 

Culebra Cut, 129, 132, 466. 

efficiency of navy doubled by, 41, 
330. 

Gamboa Dam, 135, 137. 

Gatun Dam, 62, 126, 131, 137,139. 

La Boca, 132. 

lock type of, 62. 



Panama Canal, Miraflorei , 1 ',:. 
progress oi . • ■ •. 

San Pedro Miguel, 1 
trade affected by, '•:. 
trans-continental lini 

33°. 345- 
type of, 63, 126, 129. 
world's commerce benefiti 
4'- 
Panama Canal critics, answer to, 

124. 
Panama Railroad, 126. 
Pan-American Congress, Fourth, 

454- 
Panama, straits of, 136. 
Panic, cause of, 16. 

country recovering from, 50. 

decrease in receipts 1 

39- 
depression which followed it, 56. 
disclosed lack of elasticity in our 

financial system, 27. 
prevention of, 28. 
Parke, General, 98. 
Parker Brothers, 141. 
Parker, Judge, 142. 
Parties, political differences between, 

42. 
Pasamaquoddy Bay, 448. 
Passports, 35. 
Payne Tariff Bill, 211, 572. 

best Republican Party ever passed, 
222. 
Peabody, George Foster, 444. 
Peace, promotion of, 58. 
Pearl Harbor, naval base at, 478. 
Pearre bill, 144. 
Pennsylvania memorial, unveiling of 

at Petersburg, 97. 
Pensions, for veterans of Civil and 
Spa-nish Wars, 33. 
Democratic Party recomn 

39-' 
People rule, 339. 
Periodicals, postage for, 596. 
Perkins, Senator, 333. 
Persia, constitutional government 

in, 453- 

Peru, settlement of boundary dis- 
pute of, 454. 



608 INDEX 

Petersburg, Va., unveiling at of Postal Savings Banks, countries 

Pennsylvania memorial, 97. which have them, 206. 

Phelan case, 154. Republican Party prefers, 30. 

Philippine Islands, 31, 560. Ports, legislation for, 380. 

army of, 367. Post Office Department, 480. 

church and state question, 181. deficit of, 481. 

cost of, 32, 433, 563. reduction in estimate of, 593. 

Democratic Party recommends Power, usurpation of by the Execu- 

immediate independence for, tive, 74. 

49. Pure Food law, 5. 

free trade with, 63, 227, 286, 296, enactment of, 43, 45, 261. 

306, 327. President, the, power of, 405. 

government of, 31. travelling of, 383, 411. 

missions of, 349. Pretorian Guard of Rome, 171. 

progress of, 63. Prescott, Arizona, speech at, 356. 

regular army of, 33. Products, compulsory sale of, at 

revision of tariff for, 78. fixed prices, 13. 

self-government in, 31, 327, 565. Projects, reclamation, issuing of 

tariff for, 285, 296. bonds to complete, 273, 544. 

Philippine War, successful carrying Prosperity, Bryan's election would 

on of, 43. delay restoration of, 17. 

Phoenix, Arizona, address at, 353. country in high state of, 489. 

Phosphate lands, disposition of, 270, era of, 200. 

278. Protection of citizens abroad, 35, 59. 

Physical valuation of railways, 8. Protection, Republican doctrine of, 

President Roosevelt's policy 17. 
on, 9. 

Pickett, General, 121. Querol, 179. 
Pinchot, Mr., 270. 

Pittsburg, Pa., address at, 117. Railroads, discrimination by, 4. 

Pollock vs. Farmers' Loan and legislation for, 19, 54, 192, 232, 

Trust Co., 166. 238, 376. 

Popular government, 337. passage of rate law for, 45, 577. 

Portland, Oregon, address at, 302, over capitalization of, 9. 

320, 322. physical valuation of, 8. 

Porto Rico, 30. rates of, 9. 

charges of political oppression of, right of, to make and publish 

94. traffic agreements, 517. 
expenses of, 93. President Roosevelt's policy on 
Foraker Act for, 95. physical valuation of, 9. 
free trade with, 93. treatment of, 9. 
government of, 88, 95. valuation of by Interstate Corn- 
imports of, 93. merce Commission, 10. 
message to Congress on, 88. Railway appliances, uniform con- 
prosperity of, 63. struction of, 523. 
Portuguese East Africa, 505. Railway traffic agreements, appro- 
Postal Savings Banks, 202, 428, 48 1, val by Interstate Commerce 
575. Commission, 7. 
advantages of, 28. Randolph, Isham, 125, 129. 
Congress should pass bill for, 61. Rate bill, passage of, 4, 46. 



INDEX 609 

Rates, railway, 9, 514. Republican strength in maintcn- 

Rebates, secret, 44. ance of Presidcni R 

abandonment of, by railways, 5. policic , 1, 

granting of, 239. Restraining orders, 15, 48, 68, 145. 

Reclamation act, amendment of, Retrocession, 86. 

544- Revenues, govcrni7icnl.il, 4*,;. 

Reclamation bureau, 427. increase in, 580. 

projects entered upon by, 272. Rhodesia, 505. 

issuing of bonds for, 333. Richmond, Va., address at, 424. 

Reed, Thomas B., 299, 329. Richardson, Dr. (. J., 360. 

Reform, moral, 315. Ricks, Judge, 151. 

President Roosevelt, leads move- Rinderpest in Philippines, 33. 

ment for, 4, 53. River and Harbor Bill, appropria- 

Regular Army, 368. tion of, 592. 

Mexican War service of, 120. River and Harbor improven 

monument to at Gettsyburg, 119. 39. 

Religious tolerance, 179, 351. Riverside, California, address at, 

Republican and Democratic policies, 349- 

difference between, 13. Rock Creek Park, 85. 

Republican Club banquet, N. Y. Rodelph Shalom Temple, Pittsburg, 

City, address at, 568. Pa., address at, I 17. 

Republican Party and the farmer, Roebuck, Mr., 263. 

9. Roosevelt, President, 434. 

dissensions in, 582. administration of Republican 

injunction policy of, 478. Party under, 43. 

labor policy of, 232. anti-trust law amendment,! 

promises of, 568. mended by, n. 

Republican Party's appeal, article on Army and Navy policy of, 34. 

in I tide pendent, 43. Conservation policy of, 372. 

Republican Party, charge that it is injunction policy of, 144. 

controlled by corporations, 51. Interstate Commerce Law amend- 

Republican platform, Asiatic immi- ment recommended by, 233. 

gration, 35. moral reform brought about by, 

currency system, 28. 4, 315, 401, 584. 

dependencies, policy of, 30. physical valuation of railways 

Interstate Commerce amendment policy of, 9. 

approved by, 521. policies of, 3, 310. 

interstate stocks and bonds, policies of, progressive and regu- 

policy of, 10. lative, 13. 

labor policy of, 19. policies, Republican strength in 

legislation for controlling cor- maintenance of, 3. 

porations, recommended by, 45. stocks "and bonds, policy of, 5, 45. 

Negro policy of, 34. suits brought by under anti-trust 

pensions, for veterans of Civil and law, 4. 

Spanish Wars, 33. traffic agreements, policy of, 8. 

Philippine tariff, policy of, 32. Root, Elihu, Senator, 434, 549- 

postal savings banks, recom- South American visit of, 40, 6:. 

mended by, 28. Round Tops, battle of, 121. 

protection policy of, 17. Routes, rights of shippers to 

statehood promised by, 357. ignate, 238, 521. 



610 INDEX 

Rural Free Delivery, extension of, Spokane, Washington, address at, 

38. 270. 

Russian- Japanese War, 40, 43. Spooner Act of 1902, 125, 466. 

Spreckels, Sugar Refining Co., vs. 

Safety devices, legislation for, 67. McClain, 168. 

Sage, Judge, 159. St. Aloysius Church, Washington, 

Salaries Government, no reduc- D. C, Address at, 439. 

tion in, 469. Stafford, Justice, 81, 85. 

Salt Lake City, address at, 258, Standard Oil trust, prosecution of, 

268. 581. 
San Antonio, Texas, address at, 366. State Capital, Columbia, S. C, ad- 
Sanders, Governor, 390. dress at, 415. 
San Francisco, address at, 325. State Department, 462. 
Sanitation, 420. State Fair Grounds, Macon, Ga., 

of South, 1 13. address at, 403. 

Santo Domingo, 40, 433, 457- Milwaukee, address at, 201. 

Scott, General, 120. Statehood, 353, 356, 578. 

Seattle, Washington, address at, 28 1. State Institute and College, Colum- 

Sectionalism between East and West, bus, Miss., address at, 396. 

188. Steamship lines between Atl ntic 

Self-government, 176. ports and South America, 41. 

Senators, popular election of, 37. between North and South Amer- 

Seward, Mr., 295, 364. ica, 62. 

Alaskan policy of, 281. Stearns, Frederic P., 125, 129, 131, 

Shanghai, opium conference at, 461. Stevens, John F., 125. 

Sherman anti-trust act, 479, 525, St. Johns River, obstructions in, 

repeal of, 7^. 448. 

Sherry, vs. Perkins, 159. St. Louis, Mo., address at, 385. 

Shipowners, limitation of responsi- St. Mary's Academy, Portland, Ore., 

bility of, 450. address at, 320. 

Shippers, burdens on, 237. Stephenson, Dr. Benj. F., unveiling 

protection of, 518. of memorial to, 170. 
Siam, treaty with, 462. Stock in competing railroad, pro- 
Sickles, General, 121. hibition of, 238, 522. 
Silver, free coinage of, 46. Stocks and bonds, over issue of, 4, 
Slavery, 106. 44, 45, 54, 522. 

suppression of, 508. Republican platform's policy re 

Slidell, Mr., 263. interstate railway, 10. 

Sloan, Judge, 353. President Roosevelt's policy on, 

South, appointments in, 108, 429 5. 

colored physicians needed in, 113. Stocks, watering of, 312. 

development of, 402. Straits of Panama, 136. 

hospitality of, 413, 423, 443. Strong, Dr., 175. 

sanitation of, 113. Stuntz, Dr. Homer, 505. 

tolerance of opinion in, 63, 109. Subig Bay, 593. 

South America, trade with, 328. Subsidy, mail, 41, 62, 330. 

Spanish War, successful carrying on ship, 298, 346, 482. 

of, 43. Suffrage for women, 397. 

Spitzbergen Islands, 453. Sugar, Philippine, 32, 63, 227. 

coal of, 453. Sugar trust case, 527. 



INDEX ,.,, 

Swamp land, reclamation of. 381. Tru<* ™*A -i 

Swanson, Governor, 424, 440 r , articles, putting of on 

Sykes, Maj. Gen., 121. T free hst > 47- 

J ' Tru sts, 528, 581. 

Tacoma, Wash., address at 200 rf ' 53 '' 

Taft, President, response of 'toTast ^T J 1 "' ™' 8 ^^ '" 

of President D.az, 365. good V 

Talladega University, 114. ?L„ ' 53 

Taney, Chief Justice 550 S" ^T ° U 

Tariff, the, 23 1. " Tobacco, and Standard Oil, 58, 

,-* c a unlawful, 14. 

act of August 5, rooo, 4 6 4 . Turk Su ', ta 4 n 

a downward revision of, 2,6. 302. Tuskegee Instate, J ' 

bill, Gorman- W.lson, 44, 46, 4 8. Tyrol, Governor 106 

board, appointment of, 228, 235. ' 

. 3°9> 574- Uncas 

board, uses of, 471. TT ' '\ 

*>„ P „t y , s policy on , ,, g£js& is^,, 

m -, :„. r „ Urdeneta, 170. 

maintenance of, 287 tt ■ ''- 

maximum and minimum clause of, UsUr P at,on ° f P™ er b 7 «c»ti«, 

62,227,308,470. 

Philippines, 32, 7 8 285, 296. Van Buren, Mr., ,42 

prices alleged to be raised hv v,,.- ■ 

.g,. 6 raisetl b ^> Vatican, negotiation with, 180. 

r> Li- « Venezuela, 4C6. 

Republican Party's policy on, Virginia Military Institute, 424. 

,„„• ■ r o Voyages, continuous, 440. 

revision of, ,8, 44, 47, jr, 54 , 6( ,, Vreel * nd Bil] ' 449- 

106, 187, 209, 246, 302. J 

To? 11 ° n , at , W 7 ona ' Wis "> "9. Wachusetts Reservoir, 13,. 

wool schedule of, 220. Wagner , Charles C, 360. 

Tawney Representative, 224. Walker, Dr., r 15. 3 

Taylor, General, .20. War Department, 472. 

I ax, income, -57. ro j„ 5 • 

- r ,1 c reduction in estimate of, za\. 

T.llman, Senator, 559. War of lg 593 

Tobacco, Phil.ppme, 32, 63, 227. Warner, Senator, 3, col. 

lobacco Trust, prosecution of, War, preparedness for, 59. 

Tn1 „;L 'I . . , _ „ Washington and Lee University, 

Toledo & Ann Arbor R.R. )I5 o Richmond, establishment of 

Irade, restraint of, 3,7, 525. engineer school at, 430. 

Irades-union.sm, 194. Washington, future of, 84. 

1 rathe agreements, publication of, Waterpower sites, 275, 332, 373, 387, 

5' 7 ' 427, 541. 

rates, 240. disposition of, 270, 277. 

ireasury Department, reduction in Water power, use of, 276. 

estimate of, 593. Waterways Convention, New Or- 

Tr.al by jury, 1 97. Ieans> address at> ^ 

trip around country, advantages of, Waterways, inland, 387, 392, 440, 

266 ' 49°> 498. SOI. 



612 INDEX 

Waterways, improvement of, 36. Ohio Valley Improvement Asso- 
issuing of bonds for, 381, 494, ciation, 498. 
money invested in, 373. St. Aloysius Church, 439. 
preservation of, 373. Unveiling memorial to Dr. Ben- 
Washington, D. C, addresses at, jamin F. Stephenson, 173. 

Board of Trade and Chamber West Point, 120. 

of Commerce, 80. West Virginia coal case, 157. 

Conference of Governors, 555. Whisky, what is it ? 262. 

Howard University, in. White Slave Trade, 486. 

Inaugural address, 53. Wilberforce University, 1 14. 

Lakes to the Gulf Deep Water- Wiley, Dr., 84. 

way Committee, 501. Winona, Minn., address at, 209. 

Military Order of the Caraboa, 559 Winthrop, Governor, 175. 

addresses at, National Civic Fed- Wise, Dr., 117. 

eration, 594. Wolfe, 430. 

National Rivers and Harbors Woman, Education of, 326. 

Congress, 490. 

Laymen's Missionary movement, Zelaya Government, complaint 

432. against, 458. 



































































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